The Project Gutenberg eBook of Notes and Queries Vol. V., No. 129, Saturday, April 17, 1852.

The chief glory of the church of St. Giles, Cripplegate, is the possession of Milton's dust. But this does not constitute its only distinction. It boasts a magnificent organ, and the most beautiful epitaph with which I am acquainted. As this last may be as much of a stranger to many of your readers as it was to me, and may bestow upon the curious in such matters some portion of the pleasure which its discovery gave me, I venture to crave for it a nook in your columns. Considerably to the right of the pulpit, at no great distance, if I recollect aright, to the left of the main entrance, is a monument to William Staples, a citizen of London, who died in 1650, whereon is inscribed the following elegiac couplet:

Putting aside all partiality for one's own discovery, I confess that I do not know the fellow of this epitaph. It realises one's ideal of an epitaph, inasmuch as it combines exceeding brevity and beauty of expression with exceeding fulness of thought and feeling. Love, sorrow, and faith, bereaved affection and trustful piety, find most ample and exquisite utterance in these two lines. It has scarcely won the fame to which it is entitled: I have never met with it in any collection of epitaphs. The authorship would have done no dishonour to Milton himself, to whose place of sepulture it lends, if possible, an additional consecration. Curiously enough, not merely its singular excellence, but also its date, and one or two other circumstances, give some little encouragement to the idea of Miltonic ownership. The monument bears the date of 1650, when Milton was in the fulness of his powers and reputation. He was especially connected with Cripplegate Church; more than one of his many London abodes were in its neighbourhood. There, in the earlier part of his London life, during his residence in Aldersgate Street, he may have often worshipped; there his father lay; there he meant his own sepulchre to be. He who honoured "the religious memory of Mrs. Catharine Thomson, my Christian Friend," with his most glorious sonnet, would not have disdained to bestow a couplet upon the grief of another obscure friend. There are, then, certain presumptions in favour of Cripplegate Church containing an epitaph by Milton. But it does not appear in any collection of the works of one who was so careful of his smallest and most juvenile productions. This fact, I must confess, is quite [362] strong enough to demolish a likely and pleasing fancy. The epitaph, however, though it may not be Miltonic, has every possible merit, and may find favour with such of your readers as delight in the literature of tombstones.

LIABILITY TO ERROR.

As I always strive to be accurate when writing for the press, an accidental error should not give me much compunction; nevertheless, a touch of the feeling is sure to obtrude itself on such occasions. Even the apprehension of having added to the mass of current errors gives me a fit of uneasiness, and having just recovered from an attack of that description it may not be amiss to report the case for the benefit of future patients.

When I wrote a memorandum on James Wilson, in reply to the query of professor DE MORGAN, I stated that the united libraries of Pemberton and Wilson were sold in 1772. It was guess-work.

I recollected that the two libraries were sold in conjunction, but could not recollect the date. On consulting the printed List of the original catalogues of libraries sold by auction by Mr. Baker and his successors in the years 1744-1828, which was issued by the firm in the latter year, the date appeared to be 1757. With that evidence, I penned a short comment on the remarkable circumstance of the two learned friends resolving to dispose of their libraries at the same time, on their surviving the separation from their beloved books for fourteen years, and on their dying within about six months of each other.

Some undefinable suspicions arose in my mind at this point of the inquiry. Now, the original sale catalogue is in existence, and accessible on proper application. I examined it. The sale commenced on Monday, February the 24th. The year 1757 is added in manuscript; and, since Pemberton and Wilson are described as lately deceased, it is an undoubted error. So I tore up my sentimental scrap, leaving the fragments on the table for the benefit of autograph collectors, and replaced it with the six lines which conclude my reply. On reaching home, I turned to the Chronology of history: the dominical letter was just what I wished it to be! The Book of almanacs added to my comfortable sensations.

On a re-examination of my notes, it appeared that the united libraries were sold by Baker and Leigh. Now, according to the above-described List of catalogues, the partnership between Baker and Leigh did not take place till 1775. The phrase lately deceased, applied to Pemberton and Wilson, is not very precise; the sale, however, must have been after 1774. Resolved to pursue the inquiry, I examined a copy of the catalogue in the royal library in the British Museum. It is bound with the catalogue of the library of Edward Stanley, Esq., secretary to the customs, which was sold in February 1776, and follows it. The volume is lettered 1776. As the libraries of Pemberton and Wilson were to be viewed on Monday the 17th, I turned to that day in the Stanley sale; it was Monday the 17th. This seemed to prove that the two collections were sold in the same year. Chronology says otherwise: the Monday the 17th of the Stanley catalogue is an error of the printer; and the lettering, with regard to Pemberton and Wilson, is an error of the binder!

Believing, on the evidence above stated, that the sale was after the year 1774, I came to the conclusion that it was in 1777—in which year the 24th February fell on Monday. On further search at home, I met with the catalogue in question. It is in a volume which was successively in the possession of Dent and Heber, and contains the rare Fairfax catalogue; also, A catalogue of the very valuable library of Phillip Carteret Webb, Esq., which was sold by Baker and Leigh in 1771. It now became evident that the libraries of Pemberton and Wilson might have been sold by Baker and Leigh in 1772; and on examining the Public advertiser for that year, I found the sale advertised on Thursday the 20th of February. So I was right by chance, and in spite of manuscript and printed authorities. Here ends the case.

Another anecdote in connexion with this inquiry deserves to be recorded. I had read the life of Pemberton in the General biographical dictionary. Chalmers therein states that his course of lectures on chemistry, "was published in 1771, by his friend Dr. James Wilson." I applied for the volume at the British Museum. By a rare accident the Scheme for a course of chemistry was produced instead of the Course of chemistry, and as the day was far advanced, and copy due, I gave up the pursuit. On examination, it turns out that the volume contains a memoir of Pemberton in twenty-three pages. Chalmers cites Hutton and Shaw as his authorities; and Hutton, as I conceive, gives the substance of it as his own composition! Wilson, in this important memoir, declares that his intimacy with Pemberton was the greatest felicity of his life. He dates it the 10th Aug. 1771. He died on the 29th of September in the same year.

Wilson remarks, in his previous work, that on the successful practice of navigation "depends, in an especial manner, the flourishing state of our country." To this remark no one can refuse assent. The Dissertation on the history of the art has fallen into oblivion, because it exists only in a work which has been superseded by others; but I venture to express my opinion that a separate edition of it, with such corrections and additions as might be required, and a continuation to the present time, would be a desirable addition to scientific literature; and that no one would perform the task with more ability, or more conscientiously, than professor DE MORGAN.

BAXTER'S PULPIT.

The pulpit formerly used at Kidderminster by Richard Baxter, the eminent author of The Saint's Rest, is still preserved there. In his day it stood on the north side of the nave of the parish church (St. Mary's), against the second pillar from the east. But in 1786, the church was "repaired, repewed, and beautified," in the style of those good old times: when, it being thought advisable to have a new pulpit built in a central situation, Baxter's old pulpit was condemned, and, together with other pieces of carved work, was offered for sale (!) by the then churchwardens, as old and useless church furniture. The churchmen of that day appear to have held the same opinions as their wardens; so the pulpit (with the exception of its pedestal) was purchased by the Unitarians of the place. Their successors have carefully preserved it, and it now stands in a room adjacent to their chapel.

The pulpit is of oak: octagonal in its shape, and properly decorated with flowers and architectural ornaments, in the well-known style of the period. Gold letters, inserted in six of the panels, somewhat ostentatiously informed the congregation that—

On the face of the pulpit, and immediately beneath the preacher's desk, is the text:

"O · GIVE · THANKS. UNTO · THE · LORD. AND · CALL · UPON · HIS · NAME. DECLARE · HIS · WORSHIP · AMONG · THE · PEOPLE."

surmounted by a projecting crown and cushion of bold workmanship. The mariner's compass is painted on the underside of the sounding-board, and the entire pulpit bears manifest traces of having once been adorned with gold and colours.

The octagonal pillar and pedestal on which the pulpit once stood, now serve to support the floor of a bookseller's shop in the High Street.

Within the room where the pulpit is now preserved is placed a folio copy of Baxter's work in four volumes, and an engraving of "the reverend and learned Mr. Richard Baxter," taken from the original picture in the possession of Mr. Fawcett, formerly of Kidderminster. A handsomely carved chair, formerly the property of Bishop Hall, is also placed near to the pulpit.

Can any of your correspondents inform me, if any engraving of Baxter's pulpit has been published? I have made many inquiries, but have never met with or heard of one. Three years since, I etched on the copper a correct representation of the present state of the pulpit; when, in answer to my inquiries, I was told that no one had even sketched it for many years.

A notice of "Richard Baxter," and his 168 publications, occurs in "N. & Q.," Vol. iii., p. 370.

POPULAR STORIES OF THE ENGLISH PEASANTRY, NO. I.

Only a few years before the advent of Ambrose Merton, it was the sorrowful lament of Picken that he could find no legendary lore among our English peasantry. The rapid progress of education, according to him, had long ago banished our household traditions. Want of acquaintance with the shy and reserved character of John Bull probably proved a stumbling-block to our collector, for what a rich harvest has been reaped since his day! Our mythic treasures, however, are far from being exhausted; and if we wish to emulate our brethren of Deutschland, we must do yet more. The popular tales and legends which abound among our rural population, are still for the most part ungarnered. The folk-tales of the sister kingdoms have been ably chronicled in the pages of Croker and Chambers, but our own have been almost entirely neglected. So much indeed is this the case, that we have had recourse to Germany in order to recruit our exhausted nursery literature; and readers of all sizes devour with avidity the charming versions of the Messieurs Taylor, few of them suspecting that stories of like character form the sole imaginative lore of their uneducated countrymen.

Some years ago while in the country I made a practice of noting down the more curious traditionary stories which came under my notice; and, with the kind permission of the Editor, will transfer a few portions of my researches to the columns of "N. & Q.," in the hope of inducing some of your rural correspondents to embark in a similar design. I am aware that certain antiquaries of the old régime still entertain doubts as to the utility of these collections. As vestiges, however, of primitive fiction, they will interest the philosophical inquirer; while their value as contributions to ethnological and philological science has been recognised by all writers on the subject.

Premising that these tales, however puerile, are not associated with any such idea by the people among whom they were gathered, permit me to introduce your readers to "Thoughtful Moll," in whom they will trace a remarkable resemblance to Die kluge Else of Grimm. It is from Oxfordshire, and affords no bad specimen of the facetious class of fables which often enliven the winter's evening hearth-talk. I have endeavoured to preserve the narrators' style and dialect. [364]

In a certain village there once lived a young woman so extremely noted for prudence and forethought, that she was known among her neighbours as "Thoughtful Moll." Now this young lady had a thirsty soul of a sweetheart, who dearly loved a drop of October, and one day when he came a-wooing to her: "O Moll," says he, "fill us a tot o'yeal, I be most mortal dry." So Moll took a tot from the shelf and went down the cellar, where she tarried so long that her father sent down her sister to see what had come of her. When she got there she found her sister weeping bitterly. "What ails thee, wench?" said she. "O!" sobbed Moll, "don't ye see that stwon in the arch, that stands out from the mortar like? Now, mayhaps, when I be married an have a bwoy, an he comes down here to draw beer, that big stwon'll fall down on'm and crush'm." "Thoughtful Moll!" said her admiring sister, and the two sat down and mingled their tears together. The drink not being forthcoming, another sister is despatched, and she also stops. Meantime Dob grew chafed at the delay, and went down himself to look after his love and his beer. When he hears the cause of the stoppage, he falls into a violent rage, and declares he won't have Moll unless he can find three bigger fools than herself and sisters. It is noonday when Dob sets out on his travels; and the first person he saw was an old woman, who was running about and brandishing her bonnet in the sunshine: "What bist at, Dame?" says Dob. "Why," said the old woman; "I'm a ketchin' sunshine in this here bonnet to dry me carn as a' leased in wet." "Mass!" quoth Dob, "that's one fool." And so on he went till he came to another Gothanite, who was dragging about the corn-fields a huge branch of oak. "What may ye be a-doin' wi' that, Measter?" says Dob. "Kaint ye see?" says the man; "I'm a gettin' the crows to settle on this branch, they've had a'most all me crop a'ready." "The devil you are!" said Dob, as he went on his way. He meets no one else for a long time, and almost despairs of completing his number, when at last he sees an old woman trying all she could to get a cow to go up a ladder. "What are ye arter there, Missus?" says he. "Dwunt ye see, young mon?" says she; "I'm a drivin' this keow up the lather t'eat the grass aff the thack." "Deary me!" says Dob, "one fool makes many." And so he turned back, and married Moll; with whom he lived long and happily, if not wisely.[1]

[1] Glossary.—Tot, a mug; yeal, ale; leased, gleaned; lather, ladder; thack, thatch.

Besides Grimm's version, we meet with a somewhat similar fable in Ireland. Vide Gerald Griffin's Collegians, p. 139.

Another pretty numerous class of our popular stories consists of those in which animals are made the actors. One of the most common of these relates to the strife between the fox and the hedgehog, who, according to the good people of Northamptonshire, are the two most astute animals in creation. How a couple of these worthies once fell out as to which was the swifter animal; and how, when they had put their speed to the trial, the cunning urchin contrived to defeat Reynard by placing his consort in the furrow which was to form the goal: so that when her mate had made a pretence of starting, she might jump out and feign to be himself just arrived. And how, after three desperate runs, the broken-winded fox fell a victim to the deceit, and was compelled to yield to his adversary; who, ever since that day, has been his most inveterate enemy. This myth is curious on many accounts, for the hedgehog has always been regarded as an emblem of subtlety. Grimm gives a tale precisely similar, with the exception that it is a hare and not a fox who is deceived by the ruse. Aldrovandus likewise tells us much on the score of his craft; and it was probably some mythic connexion between the animals which led Archilochus to class them together in the adage:

FOLK LORE.

Body and Soul.

—The other day, in a village in Huntingdonshire, an unbaptized child was buried. A neighbour expressed great sorrow for the mother because "no bell had been rung over the corpse." On asking why this circumstance should be so peculiarly a cause of grief, she told me that it was "because when any one died, the soul never left the body until the church bell was rung." Is this superstition believed in elsewhere? And does it arise from mistaken notions regarding "the passing bell,"—the "one short peal" which the 67th canon orders to be rung "after the party's death?"

Giving Cheese at a Birth.

—In the county of Northumberland, not far from the Cheviots, I met with the following custom. When a woman's confinement is near, a cheese is made, which, when the child is born, is cut into pieces and distributed among all the houses (without exception) in the vicinity. If the child is a boy, the pieces of cheese are sent to the males; if a girl, to the females, each member of a family receiving a portion. Visitors also come in for their share. Whence did this custom arise?

Sneezing.

—"The custom of blessing persons when they sneeze," says Brand, "has, without doubt, been derived to the Christian world, where [365] it generally prevails, from the time of heathenism." In addition to the interesting notice of the prevalence of this custom in Europe, and many remote parts of Asia and Africa, given by Brand, I find traces of it amongst the American tribes at the period of the Spanish conquest. In 1542, when Hernando de Soto, the famous conquest-actor of Florida, had an interview with the Cacique Guachoya, the following curious incident occurred:—

"In the midst of their conversation, the Cacique happened to sneeze. Upon this, all his attendants bowed their heads, opened and closed their arms; and making their signs of veneration, saluted their prince with various phrases of the same purport: 'May the sun guard you,' 'may the sun be with you,' 'may the sun shine upon you,' 'defend you,' 'prosper you,' and the like; each uttered the phrase that came first to his mind, and for a short time there was a universal murmuring of these compliments."— The Conquest of Florida under Hernando de Soto, by Theodore Irving, vol. ii. p. 161.

Whence could the natives of the New World have derived a custom so strikingly similar to that which the ancients record?

Marlborough 5th November Custom.

—At Marlborough, Wiltshire, on the 5th of November, two or three years ago, I noticed a peculiar custom the rustics have at their bonfires, to which I could attach no meaning; and I did not, at the time, inquire of any person there regarding it.

They form themselves into a ring of some dozen or more round the bonfire, and follow each other round it, holding thick club-sticks over their shoulders; while a few others, standing at distances outside this moving ring, with the same sort of sticks, beat those the men hold over their shoulders, as they pass round in succession, all shouting and screaming loudly. This might last half an hour at a time, and be continued at intervals till the fire died out. Can any correspondent inform me whether this has any meaning attached to it?

Spectral Coach and Horses (Vol. iv., p. 195.).

—A similar legend was within a few years current near Bury St. Edmunds, in the same county, where on Christmas Eve, at midnight, a coach drawn by four headless horses, and driven by a headless coachman, might be seen to come in a direction from the parish of Great Barton, across the fields, regardless of fences, and proceed to a deep hole called "Phillis's Hole" near "the two-mile spinney," in the parish of Rongham, and there find a resting-place. A few years since, wishing to learn whether this sight was among the things still looked for or believed in, I proceeded to the locality at the time stated, but met with no one but a gamekeeper, whom I found to be quite familiar with the legend. He said he had heard a good deal in his younger days about the "coach," but had never seen it. There was, however, an old woman then living who had seen it often, and who declared that the coach was occupied by a gentleman and a lady, also without heads, but he did not know what to say to it. All he knew was, that when a man was out on dark nights, "he could draw anything into his eye that he liked!"

ANTIQUARIES OF THE TIME OF QUEEN ELIZABETH.

I have a copy of Weever's Ancient Funerall Monuments, which once belonged to William Burton, the historian of Leicestershire; on a fly-leaf at the end of the volume is the following list in the autograph of that celebrated antiquary, which, perhaps, may not be without its interest to the readers of "N. & Q." I have appended some notes of identification, which I have no doubt some of your correspondents could easily render more complete.

"1. Recorder Fletewode, Wm.

2. Mr. Atey.

3. Mr. Lambard, Willm̅.

4. Mr. Cope.

5. Mr. Broughton ye Lawyer.

6. Mr. Leigh.

7. Mr. Bourgchier.

8. Mr. Broughton ye Preacher.

9. Mr. Holland, Joseph.

10. Mr. Gartier.

11. Mr. Cotton, Robt.

12. Mr. Thinne, Francis.

13. Jo. Stowe.

14. — Combes.

15. — Lloyd.

16. — Strangman.

17. Hen. Spelman.

18. Arthur Gregory.

19. Anth. Cliffe.

20. Tho. Talbot.

21. Arthur Goulding.

22. Arthur Agard.

23. Willm̅ Camden.

24. Merc. Patten.

25. Samson Erdeswike.

26. — Josseline.

27. Hen. Sacheverell.

28. Wm. Nettleton de Knocesborough.

29. John Ferne.

30. Rob̅t. Bele.

31. John Savile de Templo.

32. Daniell Rogers.

33. Tho. Saville.

34. Henry Saville.

35. Rog. Keymis.

36. John Guillim.

37. — Dee.

38. — Heneage.

39. Rich. Scarlet.

40. — Wodhall.

41. Dent de Bāco Regis.

42. — Bowyer.

43. Robt. Hare.

44. — Harrison, schoolemr.

45. — Harrison, ministr."

1. William Fleetwood, Recorder of London, "a learned man and good antiquary," ob. 1593. (Wood, ed. Bliss, i. 598.)

2. Mr. Atey. Was this Arthur Atey, Principal of St. Alban Hall, and Orator of the University of Oxford, who was secretary to the Earl of Leicester, knighted by King James, and who died in 1604?

3. William Lambarde, the learned author of the Perambulation of Kent, the first county history attempted in England, died in 1601.

5. Mr. Broughton the Lawyer, i.e. Richard Broughton, [366] Justice of North Wales, called by Sir John Wynne, in the History of the Gwedir Family, "the chief antiquary of England."

6. Mr. Leigh, probably James Leigh, author of several tracts on heraldry, preserved in Hearne's Curious Discoveries.

7. Mr. Bourgchier. Query, Sir Henry Bouchier, afterwards Earl of Bett? or Thomas Bouchier, the learned Roman Catholic divine, who died at Rome about 1586?

8. Mr. Broughton the Preacher. Could this be the learned divine Hugh Broughton, author of The Consent of Scriptures, born in 1549, ob. 1612?

9. Joseph Holland, a native of Devonshire, an excellent herald, genealogist, and antiquary, of the Inner Temple, living in 1617.

10. Mr. Gartier. Sir Gilbert Dethick, Knight of the Garter, Principal King-at-Arms, who was well skilled in antiquities, is perhaps intended. He died in 1584, at eighty-one. Or more probably his son and successor, Sir William Dethick, Knight, who was one of a select number of antiquaries who entered into a society in 1593 (the cradle of the present Society of Antiquaries). Sir William died in 1612.

12. Francis Thynne, Esq., Lancaster Herald, died 1608. "An excellent antiquary, and a gentleman painful and well deserving of his office whilst he lived." (Camden.)

13. John Stow, author of The Chronicles of England and The Survey of London; died in 1605.

15. — Lloyd, Humphry Lluyd or Lloyd, "a most noted antiquary, and person of great skill and knowledge in British affairs," ob. 1570. (Wood.)

16. Mr. James Strangeman, of Hedley Castle, Essex, cited by Salmon as an Essex antiquary. (Gough.)

18. Arthur Gregory, ancestor of the present Arthur Gregory, of Styvichall in the county of Warwick, Esq., who possesses some valuable MS. collections of his ancestor.

19. Anthony Cliffe. In Burke's Dictionary of the Landed Gentry, a person of these names is mentioned as of the city of Westminster in the Elizabethan period, ancestor of the present family of Cliffe of Bellevue, co. Wexford.

20. Thomas Talbot, "an excellent genealogist, and well skilled in the antiquities of his country." Vide Wood's Athenæ, ed. Bliss, i. 265.

21. Arthur Golding; the same, I suppose, who finished the translation of a work concerning The Trueness of Christian Religion against Atheists, &c., began by Sir Philip Sidney, and also published other translations. (Wood and Gough.)

24. Mercury Patten, Blue-mantle Pursuivant-at-Arms, had been patronised by Lord Burleigh; was living in the second year of James I.

25. Samson Erdeswike, the historian of Staffordshire, died in 1603. "A very great lover and diligent searcher of venerable antiquity." (Camden.)

26. — Josseline, secretary to Archbishop Parker, was the author of a short account of Corpus Christi or Ben'et College, Cambridge, to the year 1569. (Gough.)

29. John Ferne, author of the Blazon of Gentry, died about 1610. He was knighted by James I.

30. Robert Bele, secretary to the embassy of Sir Francis Walsingham at Paris in 1571, Clerk of the Privy Council, &c.; ob. 1601.

31. Sir John Savile, of the Middle Temple, elder brother of Sir Henry Savile, died in 1606-7. He was one of the Barons of the Exchequer.

32. Daniel Rogers, "excellently well learned; one that was especially beloved by the famous antiquary and historian W. Camden;" ob. 1590. (Wood.)

33. Thomas Savile, younger brother to Sir Henry, called by Camden "his right learned friend," ob. 1592.

34. Henry Savile. There were two Henry Saviles, who may either of them be intended; Sir Henry Savile, Provost of Eton, who died in 1621-2, or his kinsman of the same names, an eminent scholar in heraldry and antiquities, and other branches of literature. He died in 1617.

35. Roger Keymis. See MSS. Harleian, 5803. and 16,120., for two of his heraldical collections. The former is dated anno 1609.

39. Richard Scarlet, citizen and painter stainer, of London, temp. Eliz., took some good notes of Christ Church, Canterbury (Gough), and was the author of some heraldical collections now in the British Museum. (MSS. Harl. 2021.)

42. William Bowyer, author of A perfecte Kellender of all the Recordes remayninge in the office of Recordes at the Towere of Londone. (MS. Harl. 94. 4.)

43. Robert Hare, son of Sir Nicholas Hare, Master of the Rolls, 1553, of Caius College, Cambridge, collected the charters and privileges of the University in three volumes, with a fourth of those relating to the town only. (Gough.)

44. — Harrison, schoolmaster. John Harrison, physician, and Vicar of Grantchester, about the middle of the sixteenth century, was a great historian; many of his MS. collections relative to the University of Cambridge still remain. (Gough.)

45. — Harrison, minister. William Harrison, author of "Historical Description of the Island of Britain," prefixed to Holinshed's Chronicles, living in 1587, is, I suppose, intended.

THE TREDESCANTS AND ELIAS ASHMOLE.

Dr. Hamel, of whose memoir of the elder Tredescant and his voyage to Russia I gave some account in Vol. iii., p. 391., being again in England last year, pursued with unremitting zeal his researches into the history of the Tredescants, and has given the results in a short Memoir read before the Imperial Academy of Sciences at Petersburg on the 5th of December last. Having been favoured with a copy of the memoir, and a flattering letter from the writer, I think it incumbent upon me to add to my former communication a brief abstract of this interesting paper.

Dr. Hamel first directed his researches toward an endeavour to develope the means by which Elias Ashmole became the possessor of the Tredescant collection; and naturally expected that he should be able to trace the document of 1659, upon which Ashmole rested his claim to the ownership; but he could not find any such deed.

He was, however, fortunate enough to trace out the original Will of John Tredescant the younger, bearing his seal and signature, made at a subsequent date, and formally proved, after his death in 1662, by his widow Hester. This important document throws much light upon the transaction respecting the Museum, and its destination. Dr. Hamel was naturally much pleased with this discovery, and rejoiced to see for the first time the autograph of a man about whom he had so much interested himself, but was somewhat surprised to find that the name which has been usually written Tradescant was uniformly spelt Tredescant in the body of the Will, as well as in the signature; the seal, bearing the same coat of arms given on a plate in the Catalogue of the Museum, being placed between the syllable Tre and descant. This document runs thus:

"The fourth day of April in the yeare of our Lord God one thousand six hundred sixtie-one, I, John Tredescant of South Lambeth in the Countie of Surrey, Gardiner, being at this present of perfect health, minde, and memorie, thanks be therefore given to Almightie God, and calling to minde the uncertaintie of death, and being desirous whilst I am in a Capacity to settle and dispose of such things as God of his goodnesse hath bestowed upon me, doe make and declare this my last Will and Testament as followeth. First and principally I commend and yield my soule into the hands of Almighty God my Creator, and my bodie to the Earth to be decently (according to the quality wherein I have liued) interred as neere as can be to my late deceased Father John Tredescant, and my sonne who lye buried in the parish Churchyard of Lambeth aforesaid, at the discretion of my Executrix hereafter named; hopeing by and through the merits, death, and passion of my onely Saviour and Redeemer Jesus Christ to have full remission of all my Sinnes, and to see my God in the Land of the Living; and for my temporall Estate I doe will, bequeath, and dispose thereof as followeth. That is to saie, I will that all such debts as shall be by me justly due and owing to anie person or persons whatsoever at the time of my decease (if anie such be) shall be truly paid and satisfied, and after my Funeral charges shall be defrayed, for the doeing whereof I appoint the summe of twenty pounds or thereabouts shall be expended by my Executrix but not more. Item, I giue and bequeath upon the condition hereafter mentioned to my daughter Frances Norman the summe of ten pounds of Lawfull money of England, which I will shall be paid unto her within six moneths after my decease, and likewise I doe forgive her the summe of fourscore pounds or thereabouts, Principall Money, besides the Interest thereof which I long since lent her late deceased husband Alexander Norman. Provided that shee and her husband, if she shall be then againe married, give my Executrix a generall release for the same. Item, I give and bequeath to my two namesakes Robert Tredescant and Thomas Tredescant, of Walberswick in the Countie of Suffolk, to eache of them the summe of five shillings apiece in remembrance of my loue, and to every childe or children of them the [said] Robert and Thomas that shall be liuing at the time of my decease the summe of two shillings and sixpence apiece. Item, I giue to Mris. Marie Edmonds, the daughter of my louing Friend Edward Harper, the summe of one hundred pounds, to be paid unto her after my wife's decease; and in case she die before my said wife, my will is and I doe hereby giue and bequeath the said summe of one hundred pounds, after my wife's decease, to my Foure God-children, vizt. Hester, John, Leonard, and Elizabeth Edmonds, sonnes and daughters of the said Mris. Mary Edmonds Equally to be diuided amongst them, share and share alike; and if either of them die before he, her, or they receiue their share or portion so to be diuided, then the said share or portion of him, her, or them so dying to goe and be giuen to the survivor and survivors of them, share and share alike. Item, I doe hereby giue, will, devise and bequeath to my Cosin Katharine King, widdow, after the decease of my wife, the Little House commonly called the Welshmans house situate in South Lambeth aforesaid, together with that Little Piece of Ground now enclosed thereunto adjoyning; and to her heirs and assignes for euer. Item, I giue, devize, and bequeath my Closet of Rarities to my dearly beloued wife Hester Tredescant during her naturall Life, and after her decease I giue and bequeath the same to the Universities of Oxford or Cambridge, to which of them shee shall think fitt at her decease. As for such other of my friends and kindred as I should nominate for Rings and small tokens of my Loue, I leaue that to the Care of my said wife to bestow how manie and to whome shee shall think deseruing. The rest and Residue of all my Estate Reall and personall whatsoeuer, I wholly giue, devize, and bequeath to my deare and louing wife Hester Tredescant, and to her heires and assignes for euer. And I doe hereby nominate, ordaine, constitute, and appoint my said Louing Wife Hester Tredescant full and sole Executrix of this my last will [368] and Testament; and I doe desire Dr. Nurse and Mr. Mark Cottle to be Ouerseers of this my last Will and Testament, and I giue to each of them fortie shillings apiece. Lastly, I doe hereby revoke all Wills by me formerly made, and will that this onely shall stand and be my last will and Testament, and no other. In Wittnesse whereof I the said John Tredescant to this my present last will and testament haue set my hand and seale the daie and yeare aboue written.

"Signed, sealed, published, and declared by the said John Tredescant the Testator, as and for his last Will and Testament, in the presence of John Seatewell, Foulk Bignall, Robert Thompson, Junris, Ric. Newcourt, Junr, Richard Hoare, Notary Publique.

"Probatum apud London coram venerabili viro Dño Williamo Mericke milite Legum Doctore Commissario, etc., quinto die mensis May Anno Domini 1662, iuramento Hestore Tredescant, Relicte dicti defuncti et Executricis, etc."

"Decem. 12, 1659. Mr. Tredescant and his wife told me they had been long considering upon whom to bestow their close of curiosities when they died, and at last resolved to give it unto me."

Two days afterwards (on the 14th) they had given their scrivener instructions to prepare a deed of gift to that effect, which was executed by Tredescant, his wife being a subscribing witness on the 16th, as Ashmole records with astrological minuteness, "5 hor. 30 minutes post meridian." On May 30th, 1662, little more than a month after John Tredescant's death, he records—

"This Easter term, I preferred a bill in Chancery against Mrs. Tredescant, for the rarities her husband had settled on me."

Dr. Hamel succeeded in finding the protocols in this suit among the records of the Court of Chancery, in which Ashmole sets forth, that in December, 1659, he visited the Tredescants in South Lambeth, and that he was entertained by Tredescant and his wife with great professions of kindness. That Mrs. Tredescant told him that her husband had come to the determination to bequeath to him "the rarities and antiquities, bookes, coynes, medalls, stones, pictures, and mechanicks contained in his Closett of Raryties, knowing the great esteeme and value he put upon it." That Tredescant himself had afterwards said to him, that in acknowledgment of his (Ashmole's) previous trouble concerning the preparation of the catalogue of his museum and gardens,[2] he purposed to do so, and that in effect Ashmole and Mrs. Tredescant, as long as she lived, should enjoy it together. Ashmole also says, Tredescant had made it a condition that he should, after Mrs. Tredescant's decease, pay a certain Mary Edmonds, or her children, one hundred pounds sterling. That he did then actually let a deed be prepared, by which he made over to him his collection of every kind of curiosities of nature and art within or near the house (Ashmole here cunningly includes the botanic garden); Mrs. Tredescant was to have the joint proprietorship, and nothing was to be abstracted from the collection.

[2] In the preface to the catalogue the assistance of two friends is mentioned; it appears that the other was Dr. Thomas Warton.

This deed Tredescant had, on the 16th of December (1659), confirmed under his hand and seal. Mrs. Tredescant fetched a Queen Elizabeth's milled shilling, which Tredescant handed over to him, together with the conveyance, and thereby he came into possession of the collection.[3]

[3] Ashmole says, "It was not thought fit to clogge the deed with the payment of the said hundred pounds to Mrs. Edmonds or her children, to the end that the same might better appear to be a free and generous gift, and therefore the consideracion of the deed was expressed to be for the entire affeccion and singular esteeme the said John Tredescant had to him (Ashmole), who he did not doubt would preserve and augment the said rarities for posterity." He declares that he will pay the money; and in his Diary we find that after Mrs. Tredescant's death, in 1678, he pays to a Mrs. Lea, probably one of the daughters of Mrs. Edmonds, one hundred pounds.

Mrs. Tredescant had signed the deed as witness; but, when Ashmole was about to leave the house, she had requested him to leave it with her, as she wished to ask some of her friends whether, by having signed it as witness, her right as joint proprietress of the collection might not be diminished. He left the document with her, in expectation that it would soon be restored to him, but this was never done. Now, after the death of Tredescant, she maintains that her husband never made such a conveyance; but the truth is she has burnt or destroyed it in some other manner.

Against this Mrs. Tredescant refers to her husband's last will and testament of the 4th of May, 1661, by which all previous dispositions of his property, of whatever kind, were declared invalid, and strongly urges that the museum was expressly bequeathed to her and her alone, with the stipulation that she should leave it either to the University of Oxford or to that of Cambridge. And she adds, that she had determined to leave it to the University of Oxford.

I must not now further trespass upon your space; you shall have the sequel for your next Number.

Minor Notes.

Bothwell's Burial-place.

—Bothwell was imprisoned in Seeland, in the castle of Draxholm, [369] now called Adelersborg, near the town of Holbek. He died there, and was buried in the neighbouring village church of Faareveile, where I in vain have searched for this tomb or coffin. An old coffin, half opened, standing between several other old coffins in a vault below the floor of the church, certainly was said, according to tradition, to contain the body of Bothwell, but no inscriptions or other signs proved the truth of it.

Handel's Organ at the Foundling Hospital.

—It is generally understood that the organ in the chapel of this Institution was the gift of Handel. That great musician conducted a concert of sacred music upon the opening of the chapel in 1749, and superintended the annual performance of his oratorio, "The Messiah," from 1751 to 1759. In his will he left to the charity "a fair copy of the score, and all its parts," of the same oratorio; which score is still preserved, and has furnished the editor of the new edition, lately produced by the Handel Society, with several new and important readings.

Dr. Burney, in his "Sketch of the Life of Handel," prefixed to his Account of the Commemoration, 4to., 1785, says, "The organ in the chapel of this [i.e. the Foundling] hospital was a present from Handel." But how are we to reconcile this statement with the following, which I find in the European Magazine for February, 1799:

"Handel did not give the organ to the Foundling Hospital. It was built at the expense of the charity, under the direction of Dr. Smith, the learned Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, who added demitones, &c., and some of the niceties not occurring in other organs."

Correction to the "Oxford Manual of Monumental Brasses."

—Permit me to correct an error in the above carefully compiled and useful manual. On p. 15. of the "Descriptive Catalogue" a brass is described, No. 32. of their collection, to "Edward Peach, 1439;" no place is mentioned in connexion with this brass. The notice should stand thus:

"Hic jacet dmus Edwardus Peach quondam rector istius ecclesie qui obiit die Nativitatis Beate Marie Virginis Anno Domini milessimo DCCCXXXIX," &c.

The brass is so well designed and executed, that it might easily pass for an old example. By some error "sācte" has been printed for "Beate," "millessimo" for "milessimo," and "CCCC" for "DCCC" in the Oxford version of the inscription.

Milton's Rib-bone.

—In Vol. v., p. 275., mention is made of Cromwell's skull; so it may not be out of place to tell you that I have handled one of Milton's ribs. Cowper speaks indignantly of the desecration of our divine poet's grave, on which shameful occurrence some of the bones were clandestinely distributed. One fell to the lot of an old and esteemed friend, and between forty-five and forty years ago, at his house, not many miles from London, I have often examined the said rib-bone. That friend is long since dead; but his son, now in the vale of years, lives, and I doubt not, from the reverence felt to the great author of Paradise Lost, that he has religiously preserved the precious relic. It might not be agreeable to him to have his name published; but from his tastes he, being a person of some distinction in literary pursuits, is likely to be a reader of "N. & Q.," and if this should catch his eye, he may be induced to send you some particulars. I know he is able to place the matter beyond a doubt.

Queries.

THE DANES IN ENGLAND.

Since I arrived in England my friend Mr. Thoms has called my attention to the following Note by the "English Opium Eater" in the London Magazine for May, 1823, p. 556., on a subject of great interest to me with reference to the views I have advanced in my recently published volume, entitled An Account of the Danes and Norwegians in England, Scotland, and Ireland.

"I take this opportunity of mentioning a curious fact which I ascertained about twelve years ago, when studying the Danish. The English and Scotch philologists have generally asserted that the Danish invasions in the ninth and tenth centuries, and their settlements in various parts of the island (as Lincolnshire, Cumberland, &c.), had left little or no traces of themselves in the language. This opinion has been lately reasserted in Dr. Murray's work on the European languages. It is, however, inaccurate. For the remarkable dialect spoken amongst the lakes of Cumberland and Westmoreland, together with the names of the mountains, tarns, &c., most of which resist all attempts to unlock their meaning from the Anglo-Saxon, or any other form of the Teutonic, are pure Danish, generally intelligible from the modern Danish of this day, but in all cases from the elder form of the Danish. Whenever my Opera Omnia are collected, I shall reprint a little memoir on this subject, which I inserted about four years ago in a provincial newspaper: or possibly, before that event, for the amusement of the lake tourists, Mr. Wordsworth may do me the favour to accept it as an appendix to his work on the English Lakes."

Can any reader of "N. & Q." refer me to the paper in which this "little memoir" was inserted? (it was probably in a Cumberland or Westmoreland paper somewhere about the year 1819;) or [370] inform me whether it ever appeared as an appendix to any work of Wordsworth's on the English lakes?

Minor Queries.

Taylor Family.

—A great favour would be conferred by any Worcestershire correspondent who could furnish any information as to the family, arms, place of burial, of Samuel Taylor, who was Mayor of Worcester in 1731-32, and again in 1737. Are any descendants or connexions still resident in that neighbourhood? The information is required for genealogical purposes.

Analysis.

—Is algebra rightly termed analysis? Edgar Poe, a very queer American author, maintains the negative: he also enters into the question as to whether games of skill and chance are useful to the analytical powers, and gives the preference to draughts over chess, and to whist over either. But he seems to think the chief applications of analysis are to the interpretation of cryptographies, the disentanglement of police puzzles, and the solution of charades!

There is, however, plausibility in his theory that a good analyst must be both poet and mathematician. This is Ruskin's "imagination penetrative:" such a faculty belonged to the minds of Verulam and Newton, of Kepler and Galileo. I do not, however, see the necessity of Ruskin's threefold division of the "imaginative faculty." Would not "imagination analytic and creative" suffice?

Old Playing Cards.

—In 1763 Dr. Stukeley exhibited to the Antiquarian Society a singular pack of cards, dating before the year 1500. They were purchased in 1776, by Mr. Tutet, and on his decease they were bought by Mr. Gough. In 1816 they had passed into the possession of Mr. Triphook, the bookseller. Query, where are they now?

Canongate Marriages.

—According to the Newgate Calendar, vol. ii. p. 269., there seems to have existed, about the year 1745, a sort of Gretna Green in the Canongate of Edinburgh. It is long since I read that famous work, but I made an excerpt at the time, which is as follows:

"It was customary for some of the ministers of the Church of Scotland, who were out of employment, to marry people at the ale-houses, in the same manner that the Fleet marriages were conducted in London. Sometimes people of fortune thought it prudent to apply to these marriage brokers; but, as their chief business lay among the lower ranks of people, they were deridingly called by the name of 'Buckle the Beggars.' Most of these marriages were solemnized at public-houses in the Canongate."

This statement "comes in such a questionable shape," and from so "questionable" a quarter, that really one cannot be blamed for questioning it. Surely the ministers referred to must have been men deprived of their charges? Can any correspondent of "N. & Q." speak to this subject? I am certain that the Scottish clergy of that age would never have suffered any Buckle the Beggars to rank with them as regular preachers, though "out of employment."

Devil, Proper Name.

—Will any of your correspondents kindly inform me whether there are any persons now existing of the name of Devil; or who bear the devil on their coat of arms? In 1847 I saw upon the panel of a carriage in London the devil's head for a crest. To what family does this belong? "Robin the Devil" is mentioned in Rokeby, cant. vi. st. 32. The following is from the Monthly Mirror, August, 1799:

"Formerly there were many persons surnamed 'the Devil.' In an ancient book we read of one Rogerius Diabolus, Lord of Montresor." "An English monk, Willelmus, cognomento Diabolus. Again, Hughes le Diable, Lord of Lusignan. Robert, Duke of Normandy, son of William the Conqueror, was surnamed 'the Devil.' In Norway and Sweden there were two families of the name of 'Trolle,' in English, 'Devil;' and every branch of these families had an emblem of the devil for their coat of arms. In Utrecht there was a family called 'Teufel' (or Devil); and in Brittany there was a family of the name of 'Diable.'"

Hendurucus du Booys; Helena Leonora de Sieveri.

—Their portraits engraved by Cornelius Vischer from paintings by Vandyke. Who were they?

Can a Clergyman marry himself?

—If a clergyman were to perform the marriage service in his own case, would it be valid? Has such an occurrence ever been known?

Ground Ice.

—Has any satisfactory explanation been given of the mode in which the peculiar substance termed ground ice is formed in certain rivers. I am most familiar with it as seen in the Wiltshire Avon. It is seen in some rivers in Lincolnshire, where I am told it is called ground-gru. One who has noticed it in the Teviot says, that the inhabitants there call it "sludge."

The fact of ice being formed at the bottom of streams, where we should expect a higher temperature, is so curious an anomaly, that it would be desirable to collect instances where and at what depths it is observed.

Astrologer-Royal.

—I remember, in a former volume of "N. & Q.," some mention is made of Almanacks, Astrologers, &c. It escaped me at the time to tell you that the ancient office of [371] King's Astrologer happens not to have been subjected to formal abolition, and, being hereditary, it is now vested in the person of Mr. Gadbury, resident at Bristol. He is auctioneer to the Court of Bankruptcy, and a very worthy man. He tells me there is neither salary nor privilege attached to his nominal post.

William, second Duke of Hamilton.

—Can any of your numerous correspondents inform me if there is any monumental inscription, or other memorial, dedicated to the memory of William, second Duke of Hamilton, who expired on the 12th of September, 1651, from the effects of a wound received at the battle of Worcester on the 3rd of the same month? He was interred before the high altar in Worcester Cathedral, having died at the Commandery in that city; but there is neither

In making an inspection of the Commandery, an old building, probably once belonging to the Knights Templars, I was gravely told, and my informant even showed me the very spot beneath the floor of one of the rooms, in which, as tradition points out, he is said to have been buried.

The Ring Finger.

—Having observed various remarks on the ring finger in your last volume, I shall be much obliged if you can give me any information on the subject. As a lady of my acquaintance has had the misfortune to lose that finger, it has been said that she cannot be legally married in the Church of England in consequence, and had better, if ever solicited, cross the border to Scotland to make the marriage binding.

Bishop of London's Palace in Bishopsgate.

—Historians agree that King Henry VII., on his arrival in London after the battle of Bosworth, took up his residence for a few days at the Bishop of London's palace, and Bacon tells us [4] this palace was in Bishopsgate Street. Can any of your readers inform me where it stood?

Earls of Clare (Vol. v., p. 205.).

—Can H. C. K., who appears to have access to an old pedigree of this family, answer any of the following Queries?

1. Which was the Richard Earl of Clare whose daughter married William de Braose, who was starved to death at Windsor in 1240?

2. Who was Isabel de Clare, who married William de Braose, grandson of the above?

3. Who was Alice, daughter of Richard Earl of Clare, who married William third Baron Percy?

4. Who was Mabel, daughter of an Earl of Clare, who married Nigel de Mowbray, a baron at the coronation of Richard I.?

5. Who was —— de Clare, treasurer of the church of York, living between 1150 and 1200?

Lothian's Scottish Historical Maps.—

I should be glad to hear where this progressive series, or any of them, might be met with. I understand it was considered a very complete Atlas of Scotland in the olden times; but on applying to my Edinburgh bookseller, I was informed they were out of print. I think they bear date 1834, and I should think the plates are still in existence. They were said to be very accurate, and the price was under a pound. They were published by John Lothian, formerly Geographer and Map Publisher, Edinburgh.

Sally Lunn.

—Partial to my sweet tea-cake, I often think when eating it of Sally Lunn, the pretty pastrycook of Bath, to whose inventive genius we are said to be indebted for this farinaceous delicacy. Is anything known of Sally Lunn? is she a personage or a myth?

"Bough-House."

—At the late assizes for the county of Suffolk, the witnesses in two separate cases spoke of a "bough-house," and the explanation given was, that certain houses where beer, &c. was sold at fair-time only had boughs outside to indicate their character. As an illustration of the familiar proverb, "Good wine needs no bush," and as the word does not occur in Forby's Glossary of East Anglia, it may perhaps deserve a place.

Dyson's Collection of Proclamations.

—The curious collection of old proclamations, &c., in the library of the Society of Antiquaries is sometimes referred to as Dyson's, sometimes as Ames's. Was Dyson the original collector? and, if so, when did he live?

"The Hour and the Man."

—Can any of your correspondents inform me what is the origin of this expression? It occurs in Guy Mannering, and printed in Italics, but not within inverted commas. Is it a quotation?

Minor Queries Answered.

Jacobite Toast.—

[The above lines, "intended to allay the violence of party spirit!" were spoken extempore by the celebrated John Byrom, of Manchester, a Nonjuror, but better known as the inventor of the Universal Short Hand. They will be found in his Miscellaneous Poems, vol. i. p. 342. edit. 1773.]

Rev. Barnabas Oley.

—The part played by this active and loyal clergyman, who was deprived of his vicarage of Great Gransden in Huntingdonshire during the interregnum, is generally known to readers of the early history of that period. Walker, who has a notice of him (Sufferings of the Clergy, p. 141.), says he died in 1684, but does not tell us whether he was married or not. I believe he was, and left descendants; and the object of this Query is to ascertain what were the names of his children, and with whom they intermarried.

[We do not think Barnabas Oley was ever married, as his will, preserved among Bishop Kennett's Collections, does not mention either wife or children among the legacies to "his near kindred and blood." His will, with its codicils, are curious documents, and ought to be printed. See the Lansdowne MSS., No. 988. fol. 94.]

Sweet-singers.

—Swift says, in his Abstract of Collins, "Why should not William Penn the Quaker, or any Anabaptist, Papist, Muggletonian, Jew, or Sweet-singer, have liberty to come into St. Paul's church?" Wanted, some historical notice of the Sweet-singers.

[Timperley, in his Dictionary of Printing, has the following note respecting them: "May 27, 1681. The Sweet-singers of the city of Edinburgh renounce the printed Bible at the Canongate tolbooth, and all unchaste thoughts, words, and actions, and burn all story books, ballads, romances, &c."]

"Philip Quarll."

—Did a Mr. Bicknell write Philip Quarll? Was he the author of any other books? Is there a recent edition of Philip Quarll? and, if not, why not?

[Lowndes states that this work has been "frequently reprinted." The only editions known to us are the first in 1727, and the one published in a series by Harrison and Co. in 1731. The editor's initials are P. L.]

Dedication of Middleton Church.

—What is the dedication of the little church at Middleton, Essex (near Sudbury, Suffolk)? I cannot find it in the Liber Regis, in Wright's Essex, nor in Lewis's Topographical Dictionary.

[The indefatigable Newcourt, in his Repertorium, vol. ii. p. 418., was unable to give the dedication, and has left a blank for it to be supplied by some future antiquary.]

Lunatic Asylum benefited by Dean Swift.

—Which of the lunatic asylums benefited by the "will" of Dean Swift; either founded or endowed by the bulk of his property?—Vide Memoirs.

[St. Patrick's, or Swift's Hospital, for the reception of lunatics and idiots, situated near Dr. Steevens's Hospital, adjoining to James Street, Dublin. It was opened in 1757. For some account of it see Scott's "Memoir of Dean Swift," Works, vol. i. pp. 438. 527.]

Replies.

ST. CHRISTOPHER.
(Vol. v., p. 295.)

Some years ago I remember meeting with the following explanation of the beautiful legend of St. Christopher, and unfortunately forgot to take a Note of it. It recurred to my mind on lately reading Mr. Talbot's work on English etymologies, the writer of which appears to take a similar view of the allegorical meaning.

Part of the legend is founded on the meaning of the Greek Χριστοφερων, coupled with a circumstance in the original legend, which is of German origin, and is an allegorizing of our blessed Lord's bearing the sins of the world, and offering himself up on the altar of the cross. In a Latin document of A.D. 1423, the name is abbreviated into X'poferus; in an English one of the same date it is spelt Christopfore; and in French, Christopfre. Christopfer signifies Christ's sacrifice: that is, the sacrifice of the cross continually offered up in the sacrament of the altar, or the mass, the messopfer, so named from the German opfer, a sacrifice; Welsh offeiriad, a priest; offrwm, a sacrifice; offeren, the mass; Irish, oifrionn, or aifrionn.

The perfection of our blessed Lord's humanity, His resistance of evil, and mighty strength displayed in bearing the sins of the universe, are shadowed out in the great stature and vast strength of the giant Christopher. According to the legend, when he had succeeded in reaching the shore, and had set down his burden, he said: "Chylde, thou hast put me in grete peryll, thou wayest alle most as I had had the world upon me; I might bere no greater burden;" and the child answered, "Christopher, marvel thou nothing, for thou hast not only borne all the world upon thee, but its sins likewise." [373]

Mr. Talbot says, the name Christopher, Christoffer, may have been given to children born on Good Friday, the day of the Great Sacrifice, as those born on Christmas, Easter, and All Saints were named Pascal, Noel, Toussaint.

"REHETOUR" AND "MOKE," TWO OBSCURE WORDS USED BY WYCKLYFFE, A.D. 1384.
(Vol. i., pp. 155. 278.)

(See the Three Treatises, published by Dr. Todd, Dublin, 1851. Text, pages xxv, xxvi and lxv; Note on Rehetours, p. clxxi-ii.)

It is certain that Monastery and Minster were originally one word in Latin; it is generally believed that Rhythm and Rhyme were one in Greek; and it is possible that Rehetour and Caterer had one prototype in Spanish: of this last pair only one survived; it is naturally that which, by being equal to the other in sense, excels it in harmony with the English tongue.

Convinced that the office assigned to the Rehetours in the lordly household could not have been filled by any such character as ascribed to the Rehâteur, Reheater, or Rehaiteur; convinced, moreover, that the Scottish Rehator, Rehatoure, and the English Rehetour must be either both restored to their common kindred, or else consigned to common oblivion, I chose the former alternative; and after a careful inquest held on these twin foundlings, together with Rehete, Reheting, two other departed strangers of the same age, I venture to pronounce the following verdict:—

1. A native of Spain, Regatero (see Stephen's Spanish Dictionary, 1726, and all that is said about Regaton in the Diccionario of the Academy, Madrid, 1737, folio), travelling in Great Britain, changed to Rehetour, Rehator, &c.

2. By trade a retailer of provisions, huckster, or purveyor, his character strongly partook of the nature of his commodities, so as to become tainted; this appears from the quotations in Jamieson's Etym. Dictionary, and is attested by the Spanish proverb, Ni compres de Regaton, ni te descuides en meson: Wycklyffe in all three passages expresses his apprehension of "harm." The French regrattier from gratter (to scratch, scrape), and Regatero, Regaton, from gato (a cat), whether they be, or be not, truly thus derived, bear equally marks of a contemptible impression.

3. In Wycklyffe's simile the Rehetours take care of the bodily, the ecclesiastics of the spiritual food, the Pope being the steward of the household. The Scottish Rehatour we find no longer as an ordinary plain dealer, but in a state of depravity, so as to be a mere byeword, even in the sense of blackguard, which word itself, if we believe Nares (see his Glossary) that it owes its existence to those menials of the court, cannot have been barely "a jocular name," but their disposition must have corresponded to their black exterior, otherwise the joke could not have remained a lasting stigma. I believe, however, the word blackguard, by inserting the l, merely simulates a vernacular origin, it being properly Beguards (see Boiste, Dictionnaire Universel), from Beghardus (see Mediæval Glossaries), once a German participle bekārt (now bekehrt), converted, applied to the Frater conversus, secular begging monks who, increasing in number and misdeeds, soon became universally notorious, and ultimately (mixed up with impostors who assumed their dress) would serve in any capacity rather than the honest and irreproachable.

4. If Caterer proceeded from the Spanish, it arrived thus—Recatero—Recaterer—Caterer; the c for g being either the natural result from the accent which the majority of speakers withdrew from the latter syllable of the word, or is accounted for by "Recatear lo mismo que regatear:" the derivation from re and cautus, as given by Covarrubias, likewise protects the c.

5. It is possible that the primitive root Kat or Gat, in the sense of hollow, hole, cavity, cave, &c., whence Gate, Cot, Cottage, Cattegat (Sinus Codanus), probably also Regatta, was the first element of both the Spanish and the English term; the spot or situation where the eatables were originally exposed for sale thus causing them first to be called cates (a plural noun like wages), then the singular cate, &c., the noun of agent having most probably preceded the verb cater, which has come last. A similar derivation is certain with regard to huckster, which, besides huckeback, joins the Swedish hökare, German Höker, &c., from the bending, crooked, or squatting position in some brook or crook or corner.

6. The verb Rehete is aptly derived by Jamieson from Rehaiter; both are extinct, yet their kindred heiter (formerly haiter), with its two verbs erheitern and aufheitern, are still in full vigour among the Germans, to whom they afford serenity of mind, mood, and weather. The French compound word for wishing, souhaiter, refers its verb haiter to the Swedish heta, German heissen, Anglo-Saxon hetan, as in Ulf het aræran cyrice, "ULF bid rear the church" (see Latham, Engl. Lang. 1850, p. 99.): now if also from the haiter of that compound we may suppose a derivative Rehaiter, or at least one of the kind to have served Chaucer in his participle Reheting, which has been the puzzle of his commentators in the following passage from Troilus (III. line 350.):

we may easily understand thereby that, as it were, a rebidding, an importunate insisting upon, the [374] repetition of his sighs, ceased and were at an end; so that in the time of Edward III. a person complaining of a troublesome cough, headache, &c., might call it a reheting cough, &c.

(See the said Three Treatises, pages cxxxvii, and Notes, pages ccxx. ccxxiii-iv.)

Wyckliffe using the possessive "their moke," not the mere "a," as we would say, I would not give "a pin," "a button," &c., together with the evidence of the Irish muc, and the obsolete German Mocke, which has been defined "Sus fœminea, quæ ob fœtus alitur," hardly leaves a doubt that he means that animal, which may be traced also in the words muck, mucky, &c. The reader may judge for himself by the following passage:—

"Crist gave his life for hise brether, and so rewled hise shepe; thei wolen not gyue her moke to help here nedy brethern, but leten here shep perishen, and taken of hem."

In allusion to their not feeding their flock, but suffering their sheep to perish, he prefers to mention an eatable object.

[MR. BENMOHEL is wrong in supposing the word Beghard to signify bekehrt, conversus, and to be a name given to the Fratres Conversi of monasteries, who, by the way, were not "secular begging monks," nor necessarily monks at all. Any person, by a donation to a convent, could be enrolled amongst its fratres or sorores, entitled to the prayers of the monks, and to a share of their superabundant merits; and, being clothed at his death in the habit of the order, was a frater conversus. Another class of conversi were lay monks (not necessarily begging monks), who attended on the other monks, and performed certain lay duties in monasteries. MR. BENMOHEL will see some account of them in Dr. Todd's Introduction to the Book of Obits and Martyrol. of Christ's Church Cathedral, Dublin, p. xxvii.

The Beghards, on the other hand, were not, properly speaking, monks at all, inasmuch as they were not under any monastic vow. They professed poverty, and lived on alms generally; but in other respects their mode of life was various, and their orthodoxy and morality very doubtful. They are generally denounced by the ecclesiastical authorities; and, except in some few places and under certain regulations, were never recognised by the Church. The best account of them will be found in Mosheim's posthumous and unfinished treatise, De Beghardis et Beguinis. The name is evidently, as Mosheim shows, a compound of beg (from the old Saxon beggen, mendicare) and hard, or hart, a servant, famulus, servus: the same word which we still use in the composition of such words as shepherd, cow-herd, swine-herd. So that Beghard is not otherwise different from our word beggar, than in so far as it was formerly applied to a religious sect.

MR. BENMOHEL'S explanation of Rehetour is very ingenious, and may very possibly be true. His interpretation of Muck is not so satisfactory.]

PLAGUE STONES.
(Vol. v., p. 226.)

At the bottom of a street leading from Bury St. Edmunds to the Newmarket road, stands an octagonal stone of Petworth marble with a hole in it, which is said to have been filled with water or vinegar in the time of the small-pox in 1677, for people to dip their money in on leaving the market. What truth may attach to the traditionary use of the stone I know not; but the stone is the base of a cross called St. Peter's Cross, and the hole is the socket for the shaft.

Are the stones mentioned by your correspondent J. J. S. as plague stones anything more than the "holy stones" common at the meeting of old cross roads in Lancashire, and perhaps other counties? The square hole in them is surely nothing more than the socket in which the way-side cross was formerly placed. Perhaps, however, he is speaking of a different and less common kind of stone, in which case, if a list is made, it must be by some competent person, able to distinguish the one from the other.

In compliance with the suggestion of J. J. S., I may note that what I suppose (since reading his communication in "N. & Q.") to be a "plague stone" is to be seen close to Gresford in Denbighshire. I met with it last summer, and could not then imagine what it could be. It is a large hexagonal (I think) stone, with a round cavity on the top, which certainly was full of water when I passed it. This cavity is pretty deep, and the stone must be nearly three feet high, by from two to three across. I regret I made no measurements of it. It is situated about a quarter of a mile from the town on the road to Wrexham, under a wide-spreading tree, on an open space where three roads meet. Should this be seen by any Gresfordite, perhaps he would send you a more accurate description of this stone, with any legend that may be attached to it.

RHYMES ON PLACES.
(Vol. v., p. 293.)

Notwithstanding his name, which appears to indicate northern origin, your correspondent W. FRASER may possibly be unacquainted with Robert Chambers's amusing work, entitled Popular Rhymes of Scotland, which contains numerous verses on both places and families, besides other curious matter.

I beg to contribute the inclosed, which I have heard from a former incumbent of the parish of Sutton Long in Somersetshire.

It was an ancient saying in the parish, and I believe the word tump is Somersetshire for heap.

The first line is literally true; to give an opinion on the second would descend too much into personalities.

ARCHAIC AND PROVINCIAL WORDS.
(Vol. v., pp. 173. 196. 250.)

Provincial Words.

—Though the Rev. Wm. Barnes has almost perfectionated the catalogue of Dorset provincialisms in the Glossary to his beautiful poems in the Dorset dialect, I still sometimes meet with a stray omission, viz.:

In connexion with this inquiry, would it not be interesting to make out a list of proper names of individuals, the pronunciation of which is different from the spelling; and, if possible, to trace (for example) how Trevelyan and St. John became Trevethlan and Sinjin, and the high-sounding Cholmondeley sank, in the bathos of pronunciation, to plain Chumley?

The Word "Pick."

—Presuming that the proposal at Vol. v., p. 173., involves the discussion and illustration of the words inserted, allow me, as a Lancashire man, to express my belief that the word pick has invariably the sense of "to throw," and not "to push." It is in fact another form of the verb "to pitch;" the two terminations being almost convertible, especially in words formed from the Saxon, as "fetch" from "feccean," "stitch" from "stician," "thatch" from "theccan," the earlier form of the latter word being retained in the well-known lines of "Bessy Bell and Mary Gray." Pick, in the sense of "throw," will be found in Shakspeare's Henry VIII., Act V. Sc. 3.:

And see the notes of the various commentators on these passages. If the subject be worth further illustration, I may mention that in the district of the cotton manufacture, the instrument by which the shuttle is thrown across the loom is called a picker; and each thread of the woven fabric, being the result of one throw of the shuttle, is, by using the word in a secondary sense, called a pick. I have heard a story of a worthy patron of the Arts, more noted for his wealth than his taste, who, attributing certain freedom of touch in a picture, for which he had given a commission, to a want of due pains in elaboration, expressed his dissatisfaction by saying, "there were not the right number of picks to the inch;" the threads of calico, when received from the weaver, being usually counted under the microscope as a test of the goodness of the work.

North Lincolnshire Provincialisms (Vol. v., pp. 173. 250.).

—I have noted the following North Lincolnshire provincialisms since the appearance of MR. RAWLINSON'S suggestion:—

Beat. A bundle of flax.

Blower. A winnowing machine.

Bumble. A rush used to make the seats of chairs.

Bun. The stalk of hemp.

Casson. Cow dung.

Charking. The wall lining a well.

Choo. }

} Words used in driving pigs.

Huigh. }

Connifolde. To cheat; to deceive.

Coul Rake. An instrument used to scrape mud from roads.

Dozel. A toppen; a ball placed on the highest point of a corn-rick.

Feat. Clever.

Fingers-and-toes. Turnips are said to go to fingers and toes when instead of forming bulbs they branch off into small knotty substances.

Gizen. To stare vacantly.

Grave. To dig turf.

Gyme. A breach in a bank. [376]

Hales. The handles of a plough.

Hethud. A viper.

Kedge. Trash; rubbish.

Kelp. The handles of a pail.

Ketlack. Wild mustard.

Kittlin. A kitten.

Lew. A word used in driving geese.

Livery. Sad; heavy; said of freshly-ploughed soil.

Mazzen. To stupify; to make dizzy.

Meant. Meaning of.

Nobut. Only.

Nout. Nothing.

Nozzel. The spout of a pump.

Rate. To revile.

Snail-shelley. Cankered; said of wood.

Tod. Dung.

LONDON STREET CHARACTERS.
(Vol. v., p. 270.)

I believe more than one of the courts to be haunted by persons who may have suggested Mr. Dickens's "Little Old Lady." More than twenty years ago a female of about fifty was a constant attendant on the Court of Queen's Bench in Banco: I never saw her at a Nisi Prius sitting. She was meanly but tidily dressed, quiet and unobtrusive in manners, but much gratified by notice from any barrister. It was said she had been ruined by a suit, but I could not learn anything authentic about her; though I several times spoke and listened to her, partly from curiosity and partly from the pleasure which she showed at being spoken to. Her thoughts seemed fixed upon the business of the day, and I never extracted more than, "Will they take motions?—Will it come on next?—I hope he will bring it on to-day!" but who was "he," or what was "it," I could not learn; and when I asked, she would pause as if to think, and pointing to the bench, say, "That's Lord Tenterden." I have seen her rise, as about to address the court, when the judges were going out, and look mortified as if she felt neglected. I cannot say when she disappeared, but I do not remember having seen her for the last eight years.

I have heard that an old woman frequented Doctors' Commons about seven years ago. She appeared to listen to the arguments, but was reserved and mopish, if spoken to. She often threw herself in the way of one of the leading advocates, and always addressed him in the same words: "Dr. ——, I am virgo intacta."

The sailor-looking man described by Charles Lamb lasted a long time. I remember him in Fleet Street and the Strand when I was boy, and also an account which appeared in the newspapers of his vigorous resistance when apprehended as a vagrant; but I cannot fix the dates. I think, however, it was about 1822. His portrait is in Kirby's Wonderful and Eccentric Museum, vol. i. p. 331. Below it is, "Samuel Horsey, aged fifty-five, a singular beggar in the streets of London." The date of the engraving is August 30, 1803. As the accompanying letter-press is not long, I copy it:

"This person, who has so long past, that is to say, during nineteen years, attracted the notice of the public, by the severity of his misfortunes, in the loss of both his legs, and the singular means by which he removes himself from place to place, by the help of a wooden seat constructed in the manner of a rocking-horse, and assisted by a pair of crutches, first met with his calamity by the falling of a piece of timber from a house at the lower end of Bow Lane, Cheapside. He is now fifty-five years of age, and commonly called the King of the Beggars: and as he is very corpulent, the facility he moves with is very singular. From his general appearance and complexion, he seems to enjoy a state of health remarkably good. The frequent obtrusion of a man naturally stout and well made, but now so miserably mutilated as he is, having excited the curiosity of great numbers of people daily passing through the most crowded thoroughfares of the metropolis, has been the leading motive of this account, and the striking representation of his person here given."

The likeness is very good. Among the stories told of him, one was that his ample earnings enabled him to keep two wives, and, what is more, to keep them from quarrelling. He presided in the evenings at a "cadgers' club," planted at the head of the table, with a wife on each side. Not having been present at these meetings I do not ask anybody to believe this report.

I believe Mr. Dickens's sketch, in the Bleak House, of the woman who haunts the various Inns of Court, to be a clever combination of different real characters. It is principally taken from a stout painted old woman, long since dead, and who I believe was really ruined by some suit in Chancery, and went mad in consequence, and used to linger about the Courts, expecting some judgment to be given in her favour. Mr. Dickens seems to have combined this woman's painful history with the person and appearance of the diminutive creature mentioned by MR. ALFRED GATTY. This latter personage is the daughter of a man for many years bedmaker in one of the Inns of Court (I think Gray's Inn), and much of her eccentricity is assumed, as, when begging from the few lawyers who are old enough to remember her father as their bedmaker, no one is more rational and collected. Though this little woman is well known from her singular appearance and demeanour, there is no romance about her history, and her craziness (if it really exists) is not to be attributed to the Court of Chancery,—at which, as it is in the position of the dying lion in [377] the fable, every donkey (I mean no disrespect to Mr. Dickens) must have its fling.

If any correspondent really feels an interest in this little creature's history, I can undertake, with very little trouble, to supply the fullest particulars.

Although I have for many years ceased to be an inhabitant of the metropolis, I am much gratified at the suggested record of these worthies, and think it would be a most interesting book, were truthful particulars got together concerning them, with good portraits—I mean striking likenesses—of these beings, who, as ALFRED GATTY observes, "come like shadows, so depart." I will inform him something about the "half-giant," of whom Charles Lamb says, that he "was brought low during the riots of London." I almost doubt this, for just about then he lived in the parish of St. Mary-le-Strand; indeed, before then, my grandfather was there overseer, or otherwise a parochial authority, and he had him apprehended and imprisoned as a rogue and a vagabond. I have often heard my father talk about him; indeed, he knew this man well, and I regret that I have forgotten his name. He always spoke of him as having been a sailor, and that he had his legs carried away by a cannon-ball. This burly beggar had two daughters, to each of whom he is said to have given 500l. on her wedding; and it was also said he left a handsome sum of money at his death. But, doubtless, some curious correspondent will be able to forward the desideratum with farther information. I only tell the little I know.

The old porter, John, at the King's printing-office, whom I remember as quite a character, "N. & Q." have peculiar facilities to immortalise. We sexagenarians all remember the blackee at the crossing by Waithman's in Bridge Street. He was said to have died very rich, and reported to have sold his "walk," when he retired from business, for 1000l.

But other "characters" might amusingly be introduced, such as those two or three last roses in summer who continue to wear pig-tails or pantaloons. I would even not omit Baron Maseres, and such peculiarities—the German with his Bible and beard, without a hat—et hoc genus omne. There is a large work of the kind, exhibiting portraits and biographies of these illustrious personages in Edinburgh; it is now scarce and valuable. I remember spending a most interesting evening over it with a Scotchman, who knew and described many of the characters developed.

STONE PILLAR WORSHIP.
(Vol. v., p. 121.)

SIR J. EMERSON TENNENT has accumulated many interesting particulars, but by no means exhausted the subject. O'Brien, in his Essay on the Round Towers, advocates the opinion of their being idolatrous objects—remnants of Buddhism. The Lia fail is celebrated in Irish history. The episcopal city of Elphin has its name from a celebrated pillar stone, which remained erect until Charles II.'s time, when it fell in accordance with an ancient prophecy. This is attested by the cotemporary evidence of O'Flaherty. Clogher has its name from another celebrated stone, designated "The Golden Stone," which I believe was oracular. There was in the city of Dublin, until recently, a curious remnant of this veneration for stones, and in which we could probably trace the transition from the Pagan to the Christian usage. At the base of the tower of St. Audoen's Church was a rude-looking stone, something like a spud-post, let into the wall, but so as to abut upon the street. On the upper part of this stone was carved a cross in very low relief. The stone was designated "The Lucky Stone," and the lower classes of the people, especially hawkers and itinerant vendors of small wares, believed that their success in business depended on their making a daily visit to this stone, which they kissed; and thus a portion of the stone became perfectly smooth and polished. There was a tradition, too, that whenever the stone was removed, it was miraculously conveyed back to its place. Thus it was said to have been stolen away to Galway, but to have been restored to its original site on the following day. However this may be, it remained attached to the church tower until about the year 1828, when some alterations being made in the church, it disappeared from its place. The belief was, that one of the churchwardens, a man in trade, had removed the stone into his own place of business, with a view of engrossing all the luck to himself. Whether he succeeded or not, I do not know; but after an interval of twenty years the identical stone reappeared in front of a large Roman Catholic chapel lately erected near St. Audoen's Church. It remained there, a conspicuous and well-remembered object, near the donation-box, which it perhaps assisted; but about six months ago it again disappeared, having been removed, I know not where.

ON A PASSAGE IN HAMLET, ACT I. SC. 4.
(Vol. v., p. 169.)

"I do not remember a passage throughout our poet's works more intricate and depraved in the text, of less meaning to outward appearance, or more likely to baffle the attempt of criticism in its aid." [378]

observing that "the dram of base" means the alloy of baseness or vice, and that it is frequent with our poet to use the adjective of quality instead of the substantive signifying the thing.

It would be tedious to enumerate all the hapless attempts at emendation which have been subsequently made, but I must be allowed to refer to that adopted by MR. SINGER as long since as the year 1826, when he vindicated the original reading, doubt, from the unnecessary meddling of Steevens and Malone. MR. SINGER thus printed the passage:

Bale was most probably preferred to base as more euphonous, and nearer to the word eale in the first quarto; but MR. S. would now perhaps adopt base, as suggested by the word ease, in the second quarto, for the reasons given by Theobald and your correspondent A. E. B.

It is evident that dout cannot have been the poet's word, for, as your correspondent remarks, the meaning is obviously, that "the dram of base" renders all the noble substance doubtful or suspicious, not that it extinguishes it altogether. This will appear from what precedes:

Under present impressions, therefore, I should prefer, as the least deviation from the old copies, to read:

i.e. doth cast a doubt over all the noble substance, bring into suspect all the noble qualities by the leaven of one dram of baseness. This, according to your correspondent's own showing, is the very sense required by the context, "the base doth doubt to the noble, i.e. imparts doubt to it, or renders it doubtful." And when we recollect the frequent use of the elision o'er for over by the poet, and the ease with which of might be substituted for it by the compositor, I cannot but think it conclusive. To me the proposed reading, "offer doubt," does not convey a meaning quite so clear and unequivocal.

Conjectural emendation of the text of our great poet is always to be made with extreme caution, and that reading which will afford a clear sense, with the slightest deviation from the first editions, is always to be preferred. The errors are chiefly typographical, and often clearly perceptible, but but they are also not unfrequently perplexing.

That MR. COLLIER and MR. KNIGHT, who do not often sin in this way, should on the present occasion have countenanced such a wide departure from the old copies as to read ill and doubt, may well have surprised A. E. B., as it certainly did

"THE MAN IN THE ALMANACK."
(Vol. v., p. 320.)

Nat Lee's Man i' th' Almanack stuck with Pins has no reference to "pricking for fortunes;" but to the figure of a man surrounded by the signs of the zodiac found in old almanacks, and intended to indicate the favourable, adverse, or indifferent periods for bloodletting. From the various signs are lines drawn to various parts of the naked figure; and these lines give it very much the appearance of being stuck with pins.

I have not ready access to any old English almanacks; but a German one of the early part of the sixteenth century contained the figure as above described, with this inscription:

Surrounding the frame, the words "güt," "mittel," or "böss" are placed against each sign of the zodiac from which the lines are drawn; and underneath the figure are the following verses:

Similar figures no doubt occur in our old English almanacks. I will merely add that the figure above described is pasted on the back of the title-page of an edition of Regimen Sanitatis, with an interlineary version in German verse, bearing the following imprint: "Impressum Auguste per Johannem Froschauer, Anno Dm̅ MDij." 4to.

The book also bears a German title which, as it mentions the subject of bloodletting [lassen], I may as well transcribe: ¶ Diss ist das Regiment der Gesuntheyt durch all monat des ganzen iars, wie man sich halten sol mit essen und trincken, und auch von lassen. I presume that the rules for bloodletting which accompany the old almanacks are chiefly derived from this Regimen Sanitatis, which is founded upon that of the school of Salerno, as they form a principal feature in its precepts. [379]

This edition of the book does not appear to have been known to Sir Alexander Croke: I will therefore give the general precepts for the twelve months which are prefixed to it.

"Januarius { Ante cibum vina

{ tu sumas pro medicina.

Februarius { Non minuas, non balnearis,

{ Mala ne patiaris.

Marcius { Hic assature

{ tibi sunt balnea quoque cure.

Aprilis { Ut vivas sane minuas venam

{ Medicinam.

Mayus { Carnes arescentes

{ non sume sed recentes.

Junius { Sanus eris totus

{ si fons erit tibi potus.

Julius { Ut tua te vita

{ non vitas balnea vita.

Augustus { Potio te lædit

{ te quippe minutio sedat.

September { Tempore Septembris

{ prodest agrimonia membris.

October { Sumere que potes

{ et musti pocula potes.

November { Hoc tibi scire datur

{ quod reuma Novembri curatur,

{ Potio sit sana

{ atque minutio bona.

December { Sit tepidus potus

{ frigori contrarie totus."

Such were the popular dietetics, and the almanacks were made the vehicle of communicating them. As late as the year 1659, Edmund Gayton, author of the Festivous Notes on Don Quixote, put forth a book in verse entitled The Art of Longevity, or a Dietetical Institution. He had graduated in physic at Oxford, but in his book he plays the part of a Merry Andrew more than that of a physician. The book, however, is curious as well as rare.

EPIGRAM ON DR. FELL.
(Vol. v., pp. 296. 333.)

Your correspondent E. F. may very probably have been informed, by ladies intimate with the Sheridan family, that Tom Sheridan composed the lines on Dr. Fell, respecting whose author and subject inquiries were made by a querist in page 296.; but it is nevertheless quite untrue. My memory of those lines goes back to a date earlier than Tom Sheridan's capacity for writing an epigram; and this on Dr. Fell may be found, if memory does not deceive me, in the Elegant Extracts in Verse, of a date at least as early as Tom Sheridan's work. The subject of the epigram was Dr. Fell, who held the deanery of Christ Church with the bishopric of Oxford, in the times of Charles II. and James II. Its author probably put it into circulation anonymously, as is usual with such brief specimens of personal satire.

That Dr. Fell, with some learning and a character for loyalty, had somewhat in him which a discerning observer could not like, is become notorious since the publication of his correspondence with the obsequious and unprincipled Earl of Sunderland respecting Locke, whom James II. wished the Dean to deprive of the income he received as a student of Christ Church. (See Appendix to Fox's History of Early Part of Reign of James II.) Dr. Fell there tells the Earl that he had long watched Mr. Locke, and made "strict inquiries," but that no person had ever heard him speak a word against the government. He adds, that language disparaging Locke's political friends had frequently been used for the treacherous purpose of provoking such replies as might have been used to his ruin, but hitherto all in vain; and that, as he had withdrawn to the Continent, some other plan must now be adopted. He accordingly proposes a mode of ensnaring him, subjoining, that if the King would simply order his expulsion, the mandate should be obeyed, without asking for any proof of his deserving such a sentence. This was accordingly done; but in two short years the circumstances of all the parties were changed. The Bishop and Dean was gone to appear before Him who has said, "Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment;" the King had withdrawn to the Continent, expelled by his own terrors, and deprived of his inheritance; Locke was returning to his native land, to be counted one of its chief ornaments; the Earl of Sunderland had betrayed his master, and was desiring to be allowed to do any dirty work for another.

Replies to Minor Queries.

Verses in Prose.

—I consider the following not to be an instance of casual versification by prose authors:

But I consider it to be a quotation from some lost Roman poet. It is too lofty and sonorous to be casual, though such quotations are unusual to the historian.

Stops, when first introduced (Vol. v., pp. 1. 133., &c.).

—In order to assist SIR HENRY ELLIS in his inquiry into the use of stops in the early days of typography, I examined some of the earlier specimens of printing which my library afforded, and made the following notes. P. T. had [380] not found the semicolon earlier than 1636, with the exception of Gerard's Herbal, 1597. It is, however, probable that the communication of A. J. H. (p. 164.), by which it appears that the semicolon was used in 1585, may render my notes of no use. However, I send my contribution, such as it is.

In an edition of Latimer's Sermons, small 4to., black letter, judged to be the edition of 1584, the stop in question is not found. The note of interrogation is very curiously formed,—a colon surmounted by a comma, thus [,:] I might also observe that, to one of such limited knowledge as myself, the paging is singular,—only one numeral on each leaf.

In Caroli Sigonii de Republica Hebræorum, libri vij, Hanoviæ, 1608, no semicolon occurs. But in Purchas' Pilgrimage, 1613, all the four stops are used. So also in The Spanish Mandevile of Myracles, 1618.

Rev. Nathaniel Spinckes (Vol. v., p. 273.).

—Anne Spinckes married Anthony Cope, Esq., second son of Sir John Cope, fifth baronet, but had no issue.—See Debrett's Baronetage.

"'Twas they," &c. (Vol. v., p. 10.).—

AMICUS asks where this couplet is to be found. It appears to me that it has been derived from an imperfect translation of the last two lines of Martial's epigram, L. iv. Ep. 44., in which he describes the effects of a recent eruption of Vesuvius:

It is a petit morçeau of heathen blasphemy, in supposing that the gods ought to repent of what they have done.

Madrigal, Meaning of (Vol. v., p. 104.).

—NEMO will find all that I could collect upon this subject in the introduction to my Bibliotheca Madrigaliana, published by J. Russell Smith, 8vo., 1847.

Absalom's Hair (Vol. iv., pp. 131. 243.).

—In answer to P. P., who says that "Absalom's long hair had nothing to do with his death, his head itself, and not the hair upon it, having been caught in the boughs of the tree," RT. refers to the "respectable antiquity" of the popular tradition. In the Vulgate edition of the Bible (Venetiis, 1760, ex Typographia Balleoniana) there is a rude woodcut, evidently of much older date than 1760, in which Absalom is represented as hanging by his hair. Perhaps some of your correspondents can mention similar woodcuts of a far earlier date.

In a family Bible (black letter, 1634), I find the following MS. note on 2 Sam. xiv. 26.: "And when he polled his head ... he weighed the hair of his head at two hundred shekels after the king's weight;" which suggests a solution of the difficulty which has puzzled many commentators, who, to make Absalom's hair of the full weight, have to suppose that it was plastered with pomatum and sprinkled with gold dust:

"Ye lesser shekel weighed a quarter of an ounce, ye greater half an ounce. We cannot therefore suppose yt ye loppings of Absalom's hair weighed either 50 or 100 oz. But yt wn it was cut off his servts might have sold it for 12lb 10s or 25lb to ye Ladys of Jerusalem, who were ambitious of adorning yr heads wth ye Hair of ye beautifull Absalom: wth ye locks of ye Ks son...."

It is recorded that when Absalom was buried "they laid a very great heap of stones on him." Was this in detestation and abhorrence (cf. Joshua vii. 26., viii. 29.), or in honourable memory of a prince and chief? If the former, did it give rise to the custom of flinging stones in the graves of malefactors?

Bowbell (Vol. v., pp. 28. 140. 212.).

—Several of your correspondents have pointed out instances of the use of the word Bowbell as nearly synonymous with Cockney. The following lines are, I believe, of earlier date than any which have been quoted on this subject; but it is not quite clear in what sense the word Bowbell is there used.

They are from a satirical poem by John Skelton, who died in 1529; and the subject of them is Sir Thomas More.

Quid est Episcopus? (Vol. v., p. 255.).

—I know not to whom Bingham may refer these words in the edition of 1843; but in that of 1840 he expressly refers them to "the author of the Questions upon the Old and New Testament, under the name of St. Austin." But, the spurious book being part of the collection printed as S. Augustini Opera, the reference "Aug.," &c. very properly occurs there "at the foot of the page."

Nightingale and Thorn (Vol. iv., pp. 175. 242.).

—As an addition to the examples already adduced concerning this fable, I give the following:

The Article "An" (Vol. v., p. 297.).

—"Hospital" is to be found with the prefix "an" in Addison, [381] and probably in the works of all other writers who need the word and the prefix; but, as to there being only six words beginning with h to which the case of the said prefix will apply, I cannot assent to the assertion. Witness the following words, which will form decided exceptions to a supposed rule of that kind:—Harangue, hereafter, historical, hour, hostler, hyperbole, hypothesis, hysteric. Can any one speak these words in succession with the prefix "a" to each without impediment? I trow not.

The six words mentioned by NIL NEMINI, that begin with the letter h, and have the article "an" prefixed, are not quite the same as those I was taught at school. This is my list "Heir, honest, honour (including honourable), hour, herb, and hospital."

The Countess of Desmond (Vol. v., p. 323.).

—Having succeeded in eliciting notices of various pictures of Oliver Cromwell attributed to Cooper, without discovering the original miniature bequeathed to Richard Burke by Sir Joshua Reynolds, I am tempted to mention that I once saw a portrait of the Countess of Desmond, hitherto not described by any of her biographers, but very much resembling the Windsor picture and Penant's engraved print, though evidently the work of an inferior artist. The portrait in question was a short time in my father's possession, soon after the year 1800, having been delivered to him by the executor of Mrs. Elizabeth Berkeley, an eccentric old lady, well known as a correspondent of the Gentleman's Magazine, who left the picture, with many others, to Lord Braybrooke. But it was soon claimed by a Mr. Grimston of Sculcoates, in Yorkshire, who seemed to be entitled to a great portion of the collection, and my father was glad to be allowed to retain two fine views of Venice, painted by Canaletti for Berkeley, Bishop of Cloyne, who was the father of Mrs. Berkeley's husband, and which are still at Audley End. Perhaps this statement made from memory at the end of fifty years may be of no value, but it shows the existence of another likeness of the person always described as the Countess of Desmond, and as it came originally from the collection of an Irish prelate, it probably, like the lady herself, belonged to the Emerald Isle.

Friday at Sea (Vol. v., pp. 200. 330.).

—Stranger still to your correspondent W. FRASER and the readers of "N. & Q." must the assurance be that the "Birkenhead" troop-ship (whose disastrous loss was accompanied by such a terrific sacrifice of life), sailed from Portsmouth harbour on the 2nd January last—the identical day (being a Friday) on which the lamented Capt. Symons in the "Amazon" left this port, no more to return. Can we wonder that uneducated minds, usually prone to superstitious observances, should at least marvel at these strange coincidences?

Marriage of Mrs. Claypole (Vol. v., p. 298.).

—In an old annual obituary for 1712, there is mention made of the Protector's family, and of the marriage of Mrs. Claypole. I think it gives the date required by B. N., but the phraseology is rather old-fashioned, and may be open to a second interpretation. I send you the extract entire:—

"Elizabeth (and not Mary, as stated in your note) became the wife of John Claypole, Esquire, of Northamptonshire, made Master of the Horse to the Protector, one of his House of Lords, a Knight and Baronet, on July 16th, 1657, he being then Clerk of the Hanaper; the said Elizabeth dyed August 7th, 1658, and was buried in Henry VII.'s chappel in a vault made on purpose."

There is no mention of the writer's name in the volume, but I have found such of the details respecting the Cromwell family as I examined to coincide with the received authorities.

Rev. John Paget (Vol. iv., p. 133.; Vol. v., pp. 66. 280. 327.).

—Will the following facts, taken from Oldfield and Dyson's History and Antiquities of Tottenham, 1790, pp. 48-50., be of any use to CRANMORE? He is quite right as to the substitution of the baptismal name James to the Baron of the Exchequer, instead of John, as Dugdale has it: for he is called "James Pagitt, Esq.," in the inscription to his memory in Tottenham Church. He was a baron from 1631 till his death in 1638.

The authors describe him as "son of Thomas of the Inner Temple, London, son of Richard Crawford, in the county of Northampton, son of Thomas of Barton Seagrave, &c., in the said county." He married three wives: 1. Katherine, daughter of Dr. Lewin, Dean of the Arches; 2. Bridget, daughter of Anthony Bowyer; and 3. Margaret, daughter of Robert Harris of Lincoln's Inn. The latter we find, in Ashmole's Antiquities of Berks, vol. iii. p. 88., had been married twice before, and that her father was of Reading.

Baron Paget had no children by his last two wives; but by his first, besides two daughters, he had two sons: Justinian of Hadley, Middlesex, custos brevium of the Court of King's Bench; and Thomas.

If CRANMORE can communicate to me any details of his history, I shall feel obliged by his doing so.

Mary Queen of Scots and Bothwell's Confession (Vol. iv., p. 313.).

—ÆGROTUS refers, I presume, to a document which he will find in a little volume entitled, Les Affaires du Comte de Bodnée, published at Edinburgh by the Bannatyne Club in [382] 1829. The narrative was written in the old French, at Copenhagen. The original is still preserved in the Royal Library of the Castle of Drottningholm in Sweden. Bothwell wrote it on "la vielle des Roys," 1568, and appears to have given it to the Chevalier de Dauzay, the French ambassador, to be communicated to the King of Denmark. Dauzay received it on the 13th of January, 1568, and placed it before the ministers of the King on the 16th of January. M. Mignet, in his history, throws discredit on this confession, styling it "a very adroit narrative" (L'Histoire de Marie Stuart, vol. i. appendix H.); though such a self-crimination, at such a time, would seem to any impartial mind to weigh strongly in favour of the ill-fated young queen, whose character it tends to exculpate.

Introduction of Glass into England (Vol. v., p. 322.).

—It is impossible to determine at what period the use of glass utensils for domestic purposes was first introduced into this country; but being manufactured by the Egyptians and Phœnicians, we may very probably owe the introduction of it to them. Window glass appears to have been used in the churches of France as early as the sixth century; and according to Bede, artificers skilled in the art of glass-making were invited into England by Abbot Benedict in the seventh century; and the churches or monasteries of Wearmouth and Garrow were glazed and adorned by his care. Wilfrid, Bishop of Worcester, about the same time took similar steps for substituting glass in lieu of the heavy shutters which were then in use; and great astonishment was excited, and supernatural agency suspected, when the moon and stars were seen through a material which excluded the inclemency of the weather. York Cathedral was glazed about the same time; and in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, when a great stimulus was given to the erection of religious edifices, glass was generally employed in the windows. It appears to have been used in domestic architecture but very sparingly, till a much later period, when it came to be gradually adopted in the residences of the wealthy. As late as the middle of the sixteenth century it was recommended, in a survey of the Duke of Northumberland's estates, that the glass in the windows should be taken down, and laid by in safety during the absence of the Duke and his family, and be replaced on his return; as this would be attended with smaller cost than the repair rendered necessary by damage or decay. In Ray's Itinerary it is mentioned that in Scotland, even in 1661, the windows of ordinary houses were not glazed, and those only of the principal chambers of the King's palaces had glass; the lower ones being supplied with shutters, to admit light and air at pleasure.

Plate glass for mirrors and coach windows was introduced into England by the second Duke of Buckingham, who brought over workmen from Venice, and established a manufactory at Lambeth, where the works were carried on successfully according to the process in use at Venice.

The first manufactory for cast plate glass, according to the process invented by Abraham Thévart, was established in 1773, at Prescot in Lancashire, by a society of gentlemen, to whom a royal charter was granted, under the name of the "British Plate Glass Company."

Maps of Africa (Vol. v., p. 236.).

—As your correspondent has no faith in Spruner, but appears to have confidence in Kiepert, it may serve him to be informed that there is a General Map of Africa by Kiepert published in 1850, and that Drs. Barth and Overweg, the travellers in Africa, have this map with them: also, that Kiepert published a map of Algiers, Fez, and Morocco, Tunis, Tripoli, &c. There is also another map by Kiepert, of the Roman Empire in the first centuries of the Christian era, which includes the northern coast of Africa.

Cromwell's Skull (Vol. v., p. 275.).

—In answer to J. P., I beg to inform him that the skull of Cromwell is in the possession of W. A. Wilkinson, Esq., of Beckenham, Kent, at whose house a relation of mine saw it. I have no doubt that Mr. Wilkinson would feel pleasure in stating the arguments on which the genuineness of the interesting relic is based.

Miscellaneous.

NOTES ON BOOKS, ETC.

The publication of The Works of Sir Thomas Browne, vol. iii., containing "Urn Burial," "Christian Morals," "Miscellanies," "Correspondence," &c., edited by Simon Wilkins, completes this important contribution to Bohn's Antiquarian Library. We could have wished that it had not been included in this series, for we fear that circumstance may deter many from purchasing it; and the writings of Browne may still be read by all with interest and advantage, for, "of the esteem of posterity," said Johnson, "he will not easily be deprived, while learning shall have any reverence among men; for there is no science in which he does not discover some skill; and scarce any kind of knowledge, profane or sacred, abstruse or elegant, which he does not appear to have cultivated with success;" and these writings, with Mr. Wilkins's notes, may now be placed upon our shelves for fifteen shillings!

If, when speaking of the discovery of electro-magnetism by Professor Oersted, Sir John Herschel did not hesitate to declare "that the Electric Telegraph, and other wonders of modern science, were but mere effervescences from the surface of this deep recondite discovery which Oersted had liberated, and which was yet to burst with all its mighty force upon the world," he paid only a just compliment to the merits of the great physicist—and he really did no more—it is obvious [383] that Mr. Bohn, in giving as a new volume of his Scientific Library, a translation of The Soul in Nature, with Supplementary Contributions, by Hans Christian Oersted, has rendered a great service to scientific men. And it would seem, moreover, from the dedication of the translators, that in executing their labour they have been fulfilling Oersted's own wish, that a true representation of his views of nature should be presented to the English public.

BOOKS RECEIVED.—The Honey Bee. Music, and the Art of Dress. We have thus, in two handsomely and legibly printed shilling numbers of Murray's Reading for the Rail, three Essays from the Quarterly, which all who have read them will be glad to read again, and which all will gladly read who never read before.

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ROBINSON'S GREEK LEXICON TO THE NEW TESTAMENT, Condensed for Schools and Students; with a PARSING INDEX, containing the Words which occur, and showing their derivations.

This Lexicon will be found to be the fullest and most comprehensive Lexicon to the Greek Testament, which has yet been published, at a moderate price. It is compiled from Dr. Robinson's large work, but on comparison it will be found that nothing really essential has been omitted.

For the sake of the many private students who, not having had the benefit of a regular classical education, are pursuing their studies under great disadvantages, a Parsing Index is appended which gives the form of all the words as they occur in the Testament, with a reference to the word from which they are derived.

"Making use of the well-directed labour and well-earned fame of Dr. Robinson's 'Lexicon,' an English editor prepares this condensed work for the use of schools and students. Utility is the main object aimed at, so far as the young scholar is concerned, and therefore those parts of the original work are most fully given which are most essential to those who are only learners. Thus the inflexions of all verbs in any degree irregular appear in their orders, and in an appendix a copious parsing index is given.
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Spelling.	Pronunciation.
Alwalton, Hunts	Allerton
Caldicott, Hunts	Cawcott
Overton, Hunts	Orton
Brewood, Staffordshire	Brood
Chaddesley, Worcestershire	Chaggeley.

Vol. V.—No. 129. NOTES AND QUERIES: A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION FOR LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC.

CONTENTS.

Notes.

AN EPITAPH IN ST. GILES'S, CRIPPLEGATE, POSSIBLY BY MILTON.

LIABILITY TO ERROR.

BAXTER'S PULPIT.

POPULAR STORIES OF THE ENGLISH PEASANTRY, NO. I.

FOLK LORE.

Body and Soul.

Giving Cheese at a Birth.

Sneezing.

Marlborough 5th November Custom.

Spectral Coach and Horses (Vol. iv., p. 195.).

ANTIQUARIES OF THE TIME OF QUEEN ELIZABETH.

THE TREDESCANTS AND ELIAS ASHMOLE.

Minor Notes.

Bothwell's Burial-place.

Handel's Organ at the Foundling Hospital.

Correction to the "Oxford Manual of Monumental Brasses."

Milton's Rib-bone.

Queries.

THE DANES IN ENGLAND.

Minor Queries.

Taylor Family.

Analysis.

Old Playing Cards.

Canongate Marriages.

Devil, Proper Name.

Hendurucus du Booys; Helena Leonora de Sieveri.

Can a Clergyman marry himself?

Ground Ice.

Astrologer-Royal.

William, second Duke of Hamilton.

The Ring Finger.

Bishop of London's Palace in Bishopsgate.

Earls of Clare (Vol. v., p. 205.).

Lothian's Scottish Historical Maps.—

Sally Lunn.

"Bough-House."

Dyson's Collection of Proclamations.

"The Hour and the Man."

Minor Queries Answered.

Jacobite Toast.—

Rev. Barnabas Oley.

Sweet-singers.

"Philip Quarll."

Dedication of Middleton Church.

Lunatic Asylum benefited by Dean Swift.

Replies.

ST. CHRISTOPHER. (Vol. v., p. 295.)

"REHETOUR" AND "MOKE," TWO OBSCURE WORDS USED BY WYCKLYFFE, A.D. 1384. (Vol. i., pp. 155. 278.)

PLAGUE STONES. (Vol. v., p. 226.)

RHYMES ON PLACES. (Vol. v., p. 293.)

ARCHAIC AND PROVINCIAL WORDS. (Vol. v., pp. 173. 196. 250.)

Provincial Words.

The Word "Pick."

North Lincolnshire Provincialisms (Vol. v., pp. 173. 250.).

LONDON STREET CHARACTERS. (Vol. v., p. 270.)

STONE PILLAR WORSHIP. (Vol. v., p. 121.)

ON A PASSAGE IN HAMLET, ACT I. SC. 4. (Vol. v., p. 169.)

"THE MAN IN THE ALMANACK." (Vol. v., p. 320.)

EPIGRAM ON DR. FELL. (Vol. v., pp. 296. 333.)

Replies to Minor Queries.

Verses in Prose.

Stops, when first introduced (Vol. v., pp. 1. 133., &c.).

Rev. Nathaniel Spinckes (Vol. v., p. 273.).

"'Twas they," &c. (Vol. v., p. 10.).—

Madrigal, Meaning of (Vol. v., p. 104.).

Absalom's Hair (Vol. iv., pp. 131. 243.).

Bowbell (Vol. v., pp. 28. 140. 212.).

Quid est Episcopus? (Vol. v., p. 255.).

Nightingale and Thorn (Vol. iv., pp. 175. 242.).

The Article "An" (Vol. v., p. 297.).

The Countess of Desmond (Vol. v., p. 323.).

Friday at Sea (Vol. v., pp. 200. 330.).

Marriage of Mrs. Claypole (Vol. v., p. 298.).

Rev. John Paget (Vol. iv., p. 133.; Vol. v., pp. 66. 280. 327.).

Mary Queen of Scots and Bothwell's Confession (Vol. iv., p. 313.).

Introduction of Glass into England (Vol. v., p. 322.).

Maps of Africa (Vol. v., p. 236.).