{273}

NOTES AND QUERIES:

A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION FOR LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC.

"When found, make a note of."—CAPTAIN CUTTLE.

CONTENTS.

Notes.

COULD SHAKESPEARE HAVE DESIGNATED CLEOPATRA "YOND RIBALD-RID NAG OF EGYPT?"

To judge of this question fairly, it will be necessary to cite the passage in which it occurs, as it stands in the folio, Act III. Sc. 8., somewhat at large.

The notes in the variorum edition begin by one from Johnson, in which he says:

"The word is in the old edition ribaudred, which I do not understand, but mention it in hopes that others may raise some happy conjecture."

Then Steevens, after having told us that a ribald is a lewd fellow, says:

"Ribaudred, the old reading, is I believe no more than a corruption. Shakspeare, who is not always very nice about his versification, might have written,

'Yon ribald-rid nag of Egypt'—

i.e. Yon strumpet, who is common to every wanton fellow."

Malone approves Steevens's ribald-rid, but adds,

"By ribald, Scarus, I think, means the lewd Antony in particular, not every lewd fellow."

{274}

Tyrwhitt saw the necessity of reading hag instead of nag, and says what follows seems to prove it:

It is obvious that the poet would not have made Scarus speak of Antony as the noble ruin of Cleopatra's magick, and of his manhood and honour, and in the same breath designate him as a ribald. He would be much more likely to apply the epithet lewd hag to such an enchantress as Cleopatra, than that of ribald-rid nag, which I feel convinced never entered the imagination of the poet.

Imperfect acquaintance with our older language has been too frequently the weak point of the commentators; and we see here our eminent lexicographer confessing his ignorance of a word which the dictionaries of the poet's age would have enabled him readily to explain. For although we have not the participle ribaudred, which may be peculiar to the poet, in Baret's Alvearie we find "Ribaudrie, vilanie in actes or wordes, filthiness, uncleanness"—"A ribaudrous and filthie tongue, os obscœnum et impudicum:" in Minsheu, ribaudrie and ribauldrie, which is the prevailing orthography of the word, and indicates its sound and derivation from the French, rather than from the Italian ribalderia.

That nagge is a misprint for hagge, will be evident from the circumstance, that in the first folio we have a similar error in the Merry Wives of Windsor, Act IV. Sc. 2., where instead of "you witch, you hagge," it is misprinted "you witch, you ragge." It is observable that hagge is the form in which the word is most frequently found in the folios, and it is the epithet the poet applies to a witch or enchantress.

I cannot, therefore, but consider the alteration of the text by Steevens as one of the most violent and uncalled-for innovations of which he has been guilty; and he himself seems to have had his misgivings, for his observation that Shakspeare "is not always very nice about his versification" was meant as an apology for marring its harmony by the substitution of ribald-rid for the poet's own ribaudred.

It is to me a matter of surprise that Mr. Collier and Mr. Knight, in their laudable zeal for adherence as closely as possible to the old copies, should not have perceived the injury done both to the sense and harmony of the passage by this unwarrantable substitution.

S. W. Singer.

BROWNE'S BRITANNIA'S PASTORALS.

I have lately been amusing myself by reading the small volume with this title published in Clarke's Cabinet Series, 1845.

Among the many pleasing passages that I met with in its pages, two in particular struck me as being remarkable for their beauty; but I find that neither of them is cited by either Ellis or Campbell. (See Ellis, Specimens of the Early English Poets, 4th edition, corrected, 1811; and the Campbell, Specimens of the British Poets, 1819.)

Indeed Campbell says of Browne:

"His poetry is not without beauty; but it is the beauty of mere landscape and allegory, without the manners and passions that constitute human interest."—Vol. iii. p. 323.

Qualified by some such expression as—too often—generally—in almost every instance,—the last clause might have passed,—standing as it does, it appears to me to give anything but a fair idea of the poetry of the Pastorals. My two favourites are the "Description of Night"—

"Now great Hyperion left his golden throne," &c.,

(consisting of twenty-six lines)—book ii. song 1. (Clarke, p. 186.) and the "Lament of the Little Shepherd for his friend Philocel"—

"With that the little shepherd left his task," &c.,

(forty-four lines)—book ii. song 4. (Clarke, p. 278.)

If you will allow me to quote a short extract from each passage, it may enable the reader to see how far I am justified in protesting against Campbell's criticism; and I will then try to support the pretensions of the last, by showing that much of the very same imagery that it contains is to be found in other writings of acknowledged merit:—

Both these passages may have been quoted by some of Campbell's predecessors. This might justify him in not repeating them, but not in writing the criticism to which I have ventured to object. His work holds a high rank in English literature—it is taken as a text-book by the generality of readers; for which reasons I think that every dictum it lays down ought to be examined with more than usual care and attention.

Compare with different parts of the "Lament:"

"The morning of the day on which the farmer was to be buried, was rendered remarkable by the uncommon denseness of an autumnal fog. To Mrs. Mason's eye, it threw a gloom over the face of nature; nor, when it gradually yielded to the influence of the sun, and slowly retiring from the valley, hung, as if rolled into masses, mid-way upon the mountains, did the changes thus produced excite any admiration. Still, wherever she looked, all seemed to wear the aspect of sadness. As she passed from Morrison's to the house of mourning, the shocks of yellow corn, spangled with dewdrops, appeared to her to stand as mementos of the vanity of human hopes, and the inutility of human labours. The cattle, as they went forth to pasture, lowing as they went, seemed as if lamenting that the hand which fed them was at rest; and even the Robin-red-breast, whose cheerful notes she had so often listened to with pleasure, now seemed to send forth a song of sorrow, expressive of dejection and woe."—Miss Hamilton's Cottagers of Glenburnie, chap. xii.

C. Forbes.

Temple.

Minor Notes.

"In the Sweat of thy Brow" (Vol. ii., p. 374.).—To the scriptural misquotation referred to, you may add another:

"In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread."

The true text reads,—

"In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread."—Gen. iii. 19.

The misquotation is so common, that a reference to a concordance is necessary for proving to many persons that it is not a scripture phrase.

J. Gallatly.

Anecdotes of Old Times (Vol. iii., p. 143.).—A friend of mine has furnished me with the following particulars, which may, perhaps, be interesting to A. A.

When the aunt of my friend married and began housekeeping, there were only two tea-kettles besides her own in the town of Knighton, Radnorshire. The clergyman of the parish forbad the use of tea in his family; but his sister kept a small tea service in the drawer of the table by which she sat at work in the afternoon, and secretly made herself a cup of tea at four o'clock, gently closing the drawer if she heard her brother approach. This clergyman's daughter died, at an advanced age, in 1850.

My friend's mother (who was born a year or two before the battle of Culloden), having occasion to visit London while living at Ludlow, went by the waggon, at that time the only public conveyance on that road. A friend of her's wished to place her daughter at a school in Worcester, and as she kept no carriage, and was unable to ride on horseback, then the usual mode of travelling, she walked from her residence in Knighton to Ludlow, and thence to Worcester, accompanied by her daughter, who rode at a gentle pace beside her.

Wedsecnarf.

Foreign English.—The following handbill is a specimen of German English, and is stuck up among other notices in the inn at Rastadt:

"ADVICE OF AN HOTEL.

"The underwritten has the honour of informing the public that he has made the acquisition of the hotel to the Savage, well situated in the middle of this city. He shall endeavour to do all duties which gentlemen travellers can justly expect; and invites them to please to convince themselves of it by their kind lodgings at his house.

Basil Jr. Singisem.

Before the tenant of the Hotel to the Stork in this city."

Blowen.

Britannicus.—I gather the following anecdote from the chapter "Paper Wars of the Civil Wars" in Disraeli's Quarrels of Authors. Sir John (Birkenhead) is the representative of the Mercurius Aulicus, the Court Gazette; Needham, of a Parliamentary Diurnal.

"Sir John never condescends formally to reply to Needham, for which he gives this singular reason: 'As for this libeller, we are still resolved to take no notice, till we find him able to spell his own name, which to this hour Britannicus never did.' In the next number of Needham, who had always written it Brittanicus, the correction was silently adopted."

A similar error occurs on the shilling and six-penny pieces of George III., circa 1817 (those {276}most frequently met with in the present circulation), whilst the cotemporary crowns and half-crowns have the correct orthography.

R. W. C.

Honeymoon.—Among my memoranda I find that, on January 31, 1845, an accomplished Welsh lady said to me, that the common expression "Honeymoon" was "probably derived from the old practice in Wales of drinking methèglin for thirty days after the marriage of a bride and bridegroom. A methèglin jollification for thirty days among the relatives and friends of the newly married pair." The methèglin is a fermented liquor, of some potency, made from honey. The lady asked me, at the same time, if honey was used by the ancient Greeks or Romans in the preparation of a fermented liquor. I said that I recollected no such use of honey among them, but that the ancient Greeks seemed to have brewed a beer of some kind from barley or other grain, as allusion was made to it by Aristophanes. Perhaps this notice of the "honeymoon" may draw forth some information from your correspondents who are learned in "folk lore." In the Old Testament there are many passages alluding to the use of honey, but none of them appear to indicate its having been employed in making a fermented beverage. Lucretius alludes to the practice of enticing children to swallow disagreeable medicine by anointing the edge of the cup with honey.

G. F. G.

Edinburgh.

Fees at Westminster Abbey.—The custom of taking fees at Westminster Abbey is of very ancient date, and was always unpopular. Shirley alludes to it in his pleasant comedy called The Bird in a Cage, when Bonomico, a mountebank, observes—

The dean and chapter, however, in those days were more moderate in their demands, for the price of admission was but one penny to the whole.

"This grant was made to the chapter in 1597, on condition that, receiving the benefit of the exhibition of the monuments, they should keep the same monuments always clean," &c.—See Reply from the Dean and Chapter to an Order of the House of Commons, 1827.

Blowen.

Turning the Tables.—In Bingley's Useful Knowledge, under the head of Maple, I chanced to hit upon the following the other day:

"By the Romans maple wood, when knotted and veined, was highly prized for furniture. When boards large enough for constructing tables were found, the extravagance of purchasers was incredible: to such an extent was it carried, that when a Roman accused his wife of expending his money on pearls, jewels, or similar costly trifles, she used to retort, and turn the tables on her husband. Hence our expression of 'turning the tables.'"

Can any of your kind contributors supply a better derivation?

Ω. Φ.

Queries.

AUTHORS OF THE ROLLIAD—PURSUITS OF LITERATURE.

I cannot doubt but that many of your readers feel with me under great obligations to your very able and obliging correspondents, Lord Braybrooke and Mr. Markland, for the information afforded us upon the subject of the writers of the Rolliad. And, though not many of them are, probably, sufficiently old to remember as I do—if not the actual publication of that work, yet, at least, the excitement produced by its appearance—I apprehend that the greater number are aware that it really did produce a great sensation; and that, as with the Letters of Junius before it, and the Pursuits of Literature subsequently, public curiosity for a long time busied itself in every direction to detect the able and daring authors. With this impression, I have been not a little surprised to find, since the notice of the work in your pages, that I have failed in tracing any account of it in the two books to which I naturally turned, the Gentleman's Magazine and Nichols' Literary Anecdotes. Very thankful therefore should I be if any of our correspondents would direct my inquiries to a better channel, and particularly if they would guide me to information respecting the authors,—for here I am completely at fault. I allude more especially to Richardson, Tickell, and General Fitzpatrick; who, I doubt not, were men of such notoriety and standing in their day, that "not to know them, argues myself unknown." And yet, humiliating as is this acknowledgment, it is far better to make it than to remain in ignorance; for the case can surely not be one "where ignorance is bliss," and where, consequently, "'tis folly to be wise."

I need hardly beg it to be understood, that, in grouping together the Rolliad, the Pursuits of Literature, and Junius' Letters, I by no means intended to place them upon an equality; and here I may inform your correspondent S. T. D. (what a pity that you do not require every one to give his name at length!) that the fact of Mr. Matthias being the author of the second of these works was scarcely made a secret by his family after he went to Italy. Indeed, for some time previously, it was well known to myself from what passed at this house, where he was a frequent visitor, and where I should at any time be happy to give S. T. D. ocular demonstration of it, by the production of the letters addressed to the {277}"Anonymous Author of the Pursuits of Literature," accompanied in some cases with his own answers.

Dawson Turner.

Yarmouth, April 1. 1851.

ACCOUNT OF A LARGE ANCIENT WOOD-ENGRAVING.

Perhaps some of your readers may be able to give me information regarding a large and very elaborate woodcut, which has been many years in my possession, and obviously has been used as the fly-leaf of some folio volume, though, of course not originally intended for such a purpose. It is so complicated, that I fear I shall have some difficulty in explaining it, and my explanation may require more space than you may be willing to afford me. You can, however, insert my Query at any time when you have room to spare.

The size of the engraving, is 16 inches by 13, and it is divided into two large oblong circles, and a centre; a story being carried on, clearly allegorically, from the outer circle to the second, and from the second to the centre. I will speak of each, beginning with the outer, which is entered by a portico, consisting of two columns and a round arch; on the base of one of the columns is a monogran of the artist or of the engraver, formed of the letters R. D. Under the arch is seated a lady richly attired, who holds a large cup and cover in her left hand, and around her are fourteen naked children, to one of which she seems tendering the chalice; while a bearded old man, with a scroll, is directing attention to what is going on in the outer circle. Passing under this portico we see, immediately behind it, six ladies, three religious and three secular; while to the right of the three secular ladies is a naked, winged female figure, with her foot on a sphere, a large goblet in her right hand, and some objects that look like fetters in her left hand. To the right of this figure are many others of both sexes, but nearer the spectator, some tranquil and some in despair; while, within a sort of pavilion, we see a young lady and an old gentleman banquetting, and in another compartment in bed. Still farther to the right of the winged figure are persons who appear to be escaping from torments, while a young man in rags is making his way towards a person in a religious habit, who has a scourge in his hand; behind these are two persons under a miserable thatched shed, while a lady is pointing out to a young man what is to be observed in the second circle.

This division is entered by another gate consisting of two square ornamental columns supporting a low gable, beneath which a lady, with a cross on the cape of her dress, is receiving a young man. The persons in this circle are very variously employed: on the right of the spectator are rocks with one man climbing up them, and another fallen headlong: on the left are five persons, male and female, engaged in singing and playing, and near them two men performing military music on a drum and fife; to their right are groups of philosophers and men of science with spheres, astrolabes, books, compasses, &c., and one wearing a laurel crown with a scroll in his hand, probably a poet.

We then come to the centre, or inner circle, which is entered by a wooden gate of the simplest construction, and under it is a religious lady with a young erect female on her right hand, and a supplicating male, in tattered garments, on her left. Beyond these are six females, variously clad, some with flowing hair, some in close caps, and others with nebulæ round their heads. A little to the right of these is a throned lady, with a crown of peculiar construction on her head, and a sceptre in her hand, before whom kneels a female figure, upon whose brows the throned lady is about to place a coronet. Behind the throne is what appears to be a conventual building of rather singular appearance, with round, square, and octagon towers, and surrounded by a battlemented wall. Considerably to the right of the throned lady is a figure clearly intended for some booted king wearing a crown and a collar of esses: on one side of him is a severe looking dame, fully clad and with flowing hair; and on the other a younger lady, also with flowing hair, and with her bosom bare.

Such is the woodcut regarding which I request some intelligence from your readers, as I have shown it to several persons, who I thought could enlighten me, but who could afford me no satisfaction. I suspect, from the costumes and the edificies, that it is German; and I ought to have mentioned that each circle is separated from the others by a low stone wall running all around, and that trees, hills, and fountains are not sparingly introduced. In the whole, it includes nearly a hundred figures of men, women, and children.

The Hermit of Holyport.

Minor Queries.

Viaggi di Enrico Wanton.—A fiction, upon the same plan as Gulliver's Travels, describing the visit of two Europeans to communities of monkeys and cynocephali, and written by a Venetian named Zaccaria Seriman, was printed at Venice in 1749, and again in 1764. A third citation, with the title-page Delli Viaggi de Enrico Wanton alle Terre Australi, nuova Edizione, was printed in London in 1772, "presso Tommaso Brewman Stampatore in Wych Street, Temple Bar," in 4 vols. 8vo. This edition is dedicated to George III. by "L'umilissimo e fedelissimo suddito, Enrico Wanton." Can any of your correspondents explain how this work {278}(which is of no great literary merit) came to be reprinted in England, and dedicated to the king?

A notice of Seriman's life may be found in the Biographie Universelle.

L.

Gloucester Alarm.—In the archives of Lyme Regis is this entry:

"Town Accompt Book.

"1661. For the four soldiers and drummers for service on the Gloucester alarm and candles, 10s. 0d."

What was the "Gloucester alarm?"

G. R.

Where is Criston, County Somerset?—Mr. Vaughan, a young man who was to have joined the Duke of Monmouth, was of that house or place.

G. R.

"There was a Maid of Westmoreland."—"Some fifty summers past," I was in the habit of hearing sung a simple ballad, which commenced—

and the conclusion of which was, that, however desolate and exposed a situation that might be for her dwelling, it was better than in "the haunts of men." This was said to have been written by the late Mr. Thomas Sheridan. I never heard by whom the music to it, which was very pretty, was composed; nor whether or not it was published.

Can any of your correspondents supply the words of this old ballad, and state the name of the composer of the music to it? Also whether it was published, and, if so, by whom?

E. H.

Anthony Bridges.—In the Hampshire Visitation of 1622, Harl. MS. 1544. fo. 25., appears the marriage of Barbara, second daughter of Sir Richard Pexsall, of Beaurepaire, in co. Southampton, by Ellinor his wife, daughter of William Pawlett, Marquis of Winchester, to "Anthony Bridges." That Sir Richard Pexsall died in 1571, is the only clue I have to the date of the match.

Query, Who was this Anthony Bridges, and did he leave issue?

Is it possible that this is the identical Anthony, third surviving son of Sir John Bridges, first Baron Chandos of Sudeley, respecting whose fate there is so much uncertainty? He is presumed to have married a daughter of Fortescue of Essex, but the collateral evidence on which the supposition is founded is too slight to be satisfactory. Little is known but that he was born before 1532; that he was living in 1584 (in which year he was presented to the living of Meysey Hampton in Gloucestershire, the county in which he resided); and that he had a son Robert, upon a presumed descent from whom the late Sir Egerton Brydges founded his well-known claim to the barony of Chandos of Sudeley.

O. C.

Barlaam and Josaphat (Vol. iii., p. 135.).—I was much interested in Mr. Stephens' remarks on the Rev. W. Adams's beautiful allegory, and would be glad to know from him, or some other of your learned correspondents, what English translations there are of this "spiritual romance in Greek;" where I may find an account or notice of the work, or get a copy of it.

Jarltzberg.

"Stick at Nothing."—The expression "stop at nothing" occurs in the following couplet in Dryden's Aurengzebe:

And Pope, in one of his letters, has the expression "stick at nothing," where he says:

"The three chief qualifications of party-writers are, to stick at nothing, to delight in flinging dirt, and to slander in the dark by guess."

Can any of your correspondents explain the origin of the word "stick" in the sense in which it is used by Pope; and how it came to supplant altogether the more intelligible word "stop," as employed by Dryden?

Henry H. Breen.

St. Lucia, January, 1851.

"Ejusdem Farinæ."—Your readers are acquainted with the expression "ejusdem farinæ," and the derogatory sense in which it is employed to describe things or characters of the same calibre. It was in common use among clerical disputants after the Reformation; and Leland has it in the following remarks respecting certain fabulous interpolations in the Black Book at Cambridge:

"Centum sunt ibi, præterea, ejusdem farinæ fabulæ."

I have no doubt, however, that the origin of the expression may be traced to the scholastic doctors and casuists of the Middle Ages.

Will any of your correspondents be good enough to explain the circumstances which gave rise to the adoption of "farina" as a term expressive of baseness and disparagement?

Henry H. Breen.

St. Lucia, January, 1851.

Batail.—Favine, in his Theatre of Honour (b. ii. c. 13), in speaking of a bell at Menda, says of the clapper of a bell, that "it is a Bataill in Armes." Was this word ever introduced into English heraldry? The only instances of bells in English arms that I can discover in the books to which I have access at present are in the coats of Bell, Porter, Osney, and Richbell.

H. N. E.

The Knights of Malta.—On the stone corbels which support the roof of one of the aisles of a church in my neighbourhood, there are carved the armorial badges of persons who are supposed to have contributed to the building of the church, which was erected in the thirteenth century. On one of the corbels (the nearest to the altar, and therefore in the most honourable place) there is a lamb bearing a flag. The lamb has a nimbus {279}round its head, and the staff of the flag terminates in a cross like the head of a processional cross. The device, I have reason to think, was the badge of the knights of the order of Saint John of Jerusalem, who had a preceptory in this neighbourhood during the thirteenth century. In the history of these knights, first of Jerusalem, then of Rhodes, and afterwards of Malta, I find it stated, that in the year 1130 Pope Innocent II. commanded that the standard of the knights (at that time settled at Jerusalem) should be "gules, a full cross argent."

Will any of your correspondents be so kind as to inform me if the device on the corbel was the badge of the knights of the order of St. John of Jerusalem? and if so, at what time they first assumed it?

S. S. S.

General Pardons.—Has any example of a general pardon under the great seal been ever printed at length? particularly any of those granted after the restoration of Charles II.?

J. G. N.

"Too wise to err."—You will oblige many of your readers if you will inform them from whence the words

"Too wise to err, too good to be unkind,"

are quoted.

T. W. A.

Replies.

THOMAS MAY.

(Vol. iii., p. 167.)

Thomas May, famous amongst the busy characters of his age, both as a politician and a poet, was the eldest son of Sir Thos. May, Knt., of Mayfield, in Sussex, where he was born in 1595. At the usual period of life, he was admitted a fellow-commoner of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge; and having taken the degree of B.A. he entered himself at Gray's Inn, with the intention of studying the law, which, however, it is uncertain whether he ever pursued as a profession. Whilst he was a student of the law, he made the acquaintance of Edward Hyde, afterwards Earl of Clarendon; and became the intimate associate of Ben Jonson, Selden, Cotton, Sir K. Digby, Thos. Carew^[1], "and some others of eminent faculties in their several ways."

"His parts of nature and art," writes Clarendon^[2], in describing his character, "were very good, as appears by his translation of Lucan (none of the easiest work of that kind), and more by his Supplement to Lucan, which being entirely his own, for the learning, the wit, and the language, may be well looked upon as one of the best epic poems in the English language."

As an elegant writer, indeed, of Latin verse, he is justly numbered amongst the most successful of the accomplished poets of our nation—Ben Jonson, Cowley, Milton, Marvell, Crashaw, Addison, Gray, Smart, T. Warton, Sir W. Jones, &c.—who have devoted their leisure to this species of composition. Clarendon goes on to say that May was "born to a fortune, if his father had not spent it; so that he had only an annuity left him, not proportionable to a liberal education:"

"Yet since," continues this illustrious authority, "his fortune could not raise his mind, he brought his mind down to his fortune, by a great modesty and humility in his nature, which was not affected, but very well became an imperfection in his speech, which was a great mortification to him, and kept him from entering upon any discourse but in the company of his very friends," of whom he had not a few, for "he was cherished by many persons of honour, and very acceptable in all places."

From Charles I., no mean judge of poetry, and a liberal patron of the Muses, May received much encouragement, and many substantial marks of favour in the shape of donatives; and it was at the express command of this monarch that he wrote his historical poem entitled The Victorious Reigne of Edward III. From disgust, however, at the appointment of D'Avenant to the Laureateship, on the death of Jonson in 1637,—a post to which, according to what he considered to be his own superior deserts^[3], he was himself justly entitled,—"May fell from his duty, and all his former friends," and became an active agent in promoting the designs of the so-called popular leaders. Through the interest of Cromwell, he was nominated Secretary to the Parliament, in which capacity he wrote a History of its transactions, a work which was published in 1647. This performance, which is highly commended by Granger, rendered its author extremely obnoxious to the royal party, who exercised all their powers of pen to disparage both the book and its compiler. He is represented by Clarendon, for instance, "as prostituting himself to the vile office of celebrating the infamous acts of those who were in rebellion against the king; which he did so meanly, that he seemed to all men to have lost his wits, when he left his honesty." Anthony à Wood's account^[4] of these matters, and of May himself, is that

"He was graciously countenanced by K. Charles I. and his royal consort; but he, finding not that preferment from either which he expected, grew discontented, sided with the Presbyterians, and, upon the {280}turn of the times, became a debauchee ad omnia; entertained ill principles as to religion, spoke often very slightly of the Trinity, kept beastly and atheistical company, of whom Thos. Challoner, the regicide, was one, and endeavoured to his power to asperse and invalidate the king and his cause."

His acquaintance with Challoner is also alluded to by Aubrey who says^[5], "that his translation of Lucan's excellent poem, made him in love with the republique." Aubrey adds, he was—

"A handsome man, debauched, and lodged in the little square by Cannon Row, as you go through the alley."

Clarendon concludes his notice of May by observing that—

"Shortly after the publication of his parliamentary history he died, miserable and neglected, and deserves to be forgotten."

The fact is, he was found dead in his bed in Nov. 1650; but that he was "neglected" is not altogether correct. At any rate, he was honoured with a public funeral, a marble monument, and a laudatory epitaph in Westminster Abbey,—short-lived dignities! for, at the Restoration, the memorial of his fame was torn down, whilst his body was exhumed, and, after being treated with much ignominy, hurled into a large pit in St. Margaret's churchyard adjoining.—Besides the works above noticed, May also wrote The Description of Henry II., in verse, with A Short Survey of the Changes of his Reign, and The Single and Comparative Character of Henry and Richard his Sons, in prose. Nor was that of Lucan his only translation, for he rendered into English verse Virgil's Georgics and Selected Epigrams of Martial. He was also the author of five dramas, two of which are given in Dodsley's Old Plays. A now forgotten critic, Henry Headley, B.A., of Norwich, observes concerning his historical poetics, that May—

"Has caught no small portion of the energy and declamatory spirit which characterises the Roman poet, whom, as he translated, he insensibly made his model. His battle pieces," our critic continues, "highly merit being brought forward to notice; they possess the requisites, in a remarkable degree, for interesting the feelings of an Englishman. While in accuracy they vie with a gazette, they are managed with such dexterity, as to busy the mind with unceasing agitation, with scenes highly diversified and impassioned by striking character, minute incident, and alarming situation."^[6]

In confirmation of the general propriety and justness of these remarks, I would refer to the description of "The Den of the Vices" (H. II. b. i.), and to the accounts of "The Death of Rosamond" (H. II. b. v.), "The Battle of Cressy" (E. III. b. iii.), and "The Capture of Mortimer" (E. III. b. i.). These pieces can only be thus vindicated, being much too long for extracting; but I think a republication of the entire poems would be an acceptable boon to the public.

Cowgill.

Although May's version of Cato's soliloquy is immeasurably below Addison's, I am inclined to agree with J. H. L., that, on comparing them, it is more than probable, Addison had May's description of Cato's death in his mind at the same time he penned the justly celebrated soliloquy in the 5th Act of his Cato.

E. B. Price.

Cow Cross.

Thomas May, the author of the Supplement to Lucan (Vol. iii., p. 167), was the secretary and historian of the Long Parliament. He was born at Mayfield in 1595; took the degree of B.A. at Sydney-Sussex College, Cambridge, and afterwards entered Gray's Inn, but devoted himself to literature. He translated Virgil's Georgics, Selected Epigrams of Martial, and in 1627 Lucan's Pharsalia; to the latter, in 1630, he supplied an English continuation of his own in seven books; intituled, A Continuation of the Subject of Lucan's Historical Poem till the Death of Julius Cæsar. It was dedicated to Charles. He afterwards published at Leyden a Latin translation of the seven additional books; this was added to the Amsterdam and other editions of Lucan, and has established May's fame as a classic scholar. Andrew Marvell, who saw only an apology for the doings of the tyrannical parliament in the continuation of Lucan's poem, calls May—

He died suddenly in the night of 13th Nov., 1650, his death being attributed by Marvell to a little too much indulgence in wine.

W. Durrant Cooper.

81. Guilford Street.

DUCHESS OF BUCKINGHAM.

(Vol iii., pp. 224, 249.)

P. C. S. S. believes that a reference to almost any Peerage or work on British genealogy, would {281}have saved Mr. F. B. Relton the trouble of addressing the inquiry at Vol. iii., p. 224. Katherine Sedley, daughter of Sir Charles Sedley, commemorated in Johnson's line—

was created Countess of Dorchester by James II., and subsequently married David Collyer, first Earl of Pontmore in Scotland. She died in 1692, having had by King James a natural daughter, to whom, by royal warrant, that monarch gave the rank and precedence of a duke's daughter; she was styled Lady Catherine Darnley, and married first, in October 1699, James, third Earl of Anglesey, from whom, on account of alleged cruelty on his part, she was separated by act of parliament in the following year. The earl died in 1701, and his widow married, secondly, in 1705, John Sheffield, first Duke of Normanby and Buckingham. She died on the 13th of March, 1743, and was interred with almost regal pomp in Westminster Abbey. By her first husband (the Earl of Anglesey) she had an only daughter, the Lady Catherine Annesley, married to Mr. William Phipps, father of the first Lord Mulgrave, and, consequently, great-grandfather of the present Marquis of Normanby, who on his recent elevation to that dignity, has, it appears, preferred to take one of the ducal titles of a nobleman from whom he does not descend, and of whose blood there does not flow a single drop in his veins, to the just assumption of the title of one from whom he does descend, and whose sole representative he undoubtedly is.

Of the Duchess of Buckingham's inordinate pride, there are some curious stories in Walpole's Letters to Sir Horace Mann (sub anno 1743). But perhaps the most remarkable instance of it is to be found in a periodical paper called the British Champion, which was published at that time, and which is now not commonly to be met. In the No. for April 7, 1743, there is the following anecdote:—

"I have been informed that a lady of high rank, finding her end approaching, and feeling very uneasy apprehensions of this sort, came at length to a resolution of sending for a clergyman, of whom she had heard a very good character, in order to be satisfied as to some doubts. The first question she asked was whether in heaven (for she made no doubt of going thither) some respect would not be had to a woman of such birth and breeding? The good man, for such he really was, endeavoured to show her the weakness of this notion, and to convince her that there was, where she was going, no acceptance of persons, and much more to the same purpose. This the poor lady heard with much attention, and then said with a sigh, 'Well, if it be so, this heaven must be, after all, a strange sort of a place!'"

P. C. S. S. is unwilling to believe this painful story—the more so, as it must be recollected that the author of the paper was an inveterate Whig, and the Duchess (jure paterno) as inveterate a Jacobite.

P. C. S. S.

SAN GRAIL.

Sir Walter Scott, in his Marmion (Introduction to Canto First), writes of Sir Lancelot of the Lake, that—

In his note on this passage, he refers to the romance of the Morte Arthur, and says:

"One day when Arthur was holding a high feast with his Knights of the Round Table, the Sangreal, a vessel out of which the last Passover was eaten (a precious relic, which had long remained concealed from human eyes, because of the sins of the land), suddenly appeared to him and all his chivalry. The consequence of this vision was that all the knights took on them a solemn vow to seek the Sangreal."

The orthography of the word in the romance itself is Sancgreall, which affords us a clue to what I believe to be its true etymology, Sang réel (Sanguis realis), a name it derived from the tradition of its having been employed, not only to hold the paschal lamb at the Last Supper, but also by Joseph of Arimathea to catch the blood and water which flowed from the wounds of our Blessed Lord.

Archdeacon Nares, in his Glossary, pp. 209. 445., enters largely into the legendary history of the Sangreal, as well as the question of its orthography. He takes some pains to refute the etymology given above, and quotes Roquefort (Dict. de la Langue Romane) to prove that graal or greal signifies a broad open dish. Will any one who has the means of consulting Roquefort inform us, whether he brings forward any instance of the existence of such a word in this sense? or, if so employed, whether such use may not have arisen from the ordinary erroneous orthography? It is a question well worth investigation, which I hope may call some abler pens than mine into exercise.

This holy relic, the object of so much fruitless search to Arthur and his knights, is now safely deposited in the cathedral of Genoa, where all, holy or unholy, may behold it, on making the accustomed offering to its sanctity. Of old, it concealed itself from the eyes of all but those free from mortal sin; but now, the ability to pay five francs puts one in possession of every Christian virtue, and the Sacro Catino (as it is called) is exhibited on the payment of that sum. In addition to the authorities quoted by Nares, I would refer to Sir F. Palgrave, in Murray's Handbook to Northern Italy, 1st edition, p. 105.

Sa. Ca.

{282}

The St. Graal (Vol. iii. p. 224.).—Your correspondent W. M. K. will find the subject of "the Sangreal's holy quest" treated in the late Mr. Price's elaborate preface to Warton's History of English Poetry (ed. 1840), p. 53; also an account of the MS. at C. C. C., Cambridge, in the same work, vol. i. p. 149.; and a reference to Walter Map's translation of the Latin romance of St. Graal into French, vol. ii. p. 416. See also Sismondi, Lit. of the South of Europe (Bohn, 1846), vol. i. p. 197., and note.

H. G. T.

THE FROZEN HORN.

(Vol. ii., p. 262. Vol. iii., p. 25.)

Your correspondent J. M. G. quotes Hudibras, p. i. c. i. l. 147.:

Zachary Grey does not, in his note, refer to Mandeville, but he says:

"See an explication of this passage, and a merry account of words freezing in Nova Zembla, Tatler, No. 254.; and Rabelais' account of the bloody fight of the Arimasphians and Nephelebites upon the confines of the Frozen Sea (vol. iv. c. 56. p. 229., Ozell's edit. 1737). To which Mr. John Done probably refers, in his panegyric upon T. Coryat, and his Crudities:

'It's not that French which made his giants see,

Those uncouth islands, where words frozen be,

Till by the thaw next year they've voice again."

W. B. H.

Manchester.

J. M. G. quotes Sir John Mandeville for the story of the congealed words falling like hail from the rigging of his ship in the Arctic regions. I do not remember the passage, but there is one almost identical in Rabelais' Pantagruel, lib. iv. ch. lv., headed—

"Comment en haulte mer Pantagruel ouït diverses parolles desgelées."

In the notes to Bohn's translation it is said:

"Rabelais has borrowed these from the Courtisan of Balthasar de Castillon, of which a French translation was printed in 1539, and from the Apologues of Cælius Caleagnnius of Ferrara, published in 1544."

W. J. Bernhard Smith.

Temple.

BAB AT THE BOWSTER.

(Vol. ii., p. 517.)

Your correspondent Mac is mistaken when he says that no words are used in the Scottish dance of "Bab at the Bowster:" I have myself "babbed at the Bowster" within the last few years. Upon that occasion the words sung by the company while dancing round the individual bearing the "bowster" were—

To which the "bowster-bearer" replies—

After which, throwing down the "bowster" or cushion before one of the opposite sex, they both kneel upon it, and kiss one another affectionately.

I never heard any words save the above; but a friend from a neighbouring county (Dumbartonshire) informs me, that with them it is sometimes changed into

There are also other variations which I believe I can procure, should they be desired by Mac or others. I should perhaps mention, for the benefit of Southrons, that almost all untravelled Scotchmen in conversation use the verb to learn in place of the verb to teach.

Y.

Glasgow.

The dance in Scotland called "Bab at the Bowster" is always the winding up at "kirns" and other merrymakings, and is most likely similar to the cushion-dance. The tune to which it is danced has words belonging to it. The beginning lines are—

L. M. M. R.

OLIVER CROMWELL AND HIS DEALINGS WITH THE DEVIL.

(Vol. iii., p. 207.)

Among the papers of an old personal friend and correspondent of the "Sylvanus Urban" of his day,—a clergyman of the good old school, who died a quarter of a century ago, aged eighty-six, I find the inclosed. It may possibly lead to the further elucidation of one of the Notes of B. B. It is unfortunate that no date is attached to it, nor any intimation of its history. Its owner was the intimate friend of Bennet, Bishop of Cloyne, of Dr. Farmer, of Burgess, Bishop of St. David's (afterwards Salisbury), and other eminent divines of his time.

With this MS. was inclosed another, in more modern writing; but, from the orthography, copied from an older paper, headed "Private Amours of Oliver Cromwell." It is very short, and also without date. It is at your service if desired.

S. H. H.

{283}

A NARRATIVE CONCERNING CROMWELL'S DEALINGS WITH THE D——L

"On y^e 3d of Sept., in y^e morning, Cromwell took Colonel Lindsey, his intimate friend, and first Capt. of his regiment, to a wood side not far from y^e army, and bid him alight and follow him into that wood, & take particular notice of what he saw & heard.

"After they had both alighted & secured their horses, & walked some small way into the wood, Lindsey began to turn pale, & to be seiz'd with horrour, from some unknown cause; upon wch Cromwell askt him how he did, or how he felt himself. He answered, that he was in such a trembling & consternation that he never felt y^e like in all y^e conflicts and battles he had been engaged in: But wether it proceeded from the gloomyness of y^e place, or y^e temperament of his body, he knew not. 'How now?' said Cromwell. 'What! trowbled with vapours? Come forward, man.' They had not gon above 20 yards before Lindsey on a sudden stood still and cry'd out, by all that's good he was seized with such unaccountable terrours & astonishment that it was impossible for him to stir one step further. Upon which Cromwell call'd him faint-hearted fool, & bid him stand there & observe or be witness: and then advancing to some distance from him, he met with a grave elderly man, with a roll of parchment in his hand, who deliver'd it to Cromwell, who eagerly perused it. Lindsey, a little recover'd from his fear, heard severall loud words betwixt them: particularly Cromwell said, 'This is but for seven year. I was to have it for 21, and it must and shall be so.' The other told him positively it could not be for above seven; upon which Cromwell cry'd with a great fierceness, it shd be, however, for 14 year; but the other person plorily declared it could not possibly be for any longer time: and if he woud not take it so, there was others that woud accept of it: Upon which Cromwell at last took y^e parchment, and returning to Lindsey with great joy in his countenance, he cry'd, 'Now, Lindsey, the battle's our own: I long to be engag'd.' Returning out of the wood, they rode to y^e army. Cromwell with a resolution to engage as soon as possible, & y^e other with a design of leaving y^e army as soon. After y^e first charge Lindsey deserted his post, and rode away with all possible speed, day and night, till he came into y^e county of Norfolk, to y^e house of an intimate friend, and minister of that parish: Cromwell, as soon as he mist him, sent all ways after him, with a promise of a great reward to any that w'd bring him alive or dead.

"Thus far y^e narrative of Lindsey himself; but something further is to be remembered to complete & confirm y^e story.

"When Mr. Thorowgood saw his friend Lindsey come into his yard, his horse and himself just tired, in a sort of amaze he said, 'How, now, Colonel; we hear there is like to be a battle shortly. What! fled from your colours?' 'A battle!' said y^e other; 'yes, there has bin a battle, and I am sure y^e King is beaten. If ever I strike a stroke for Cromwell again, may I perish eternally, for I am sure he has made a league with y^e Devil, and he will have him in due time.' Then, desiring his protection from Cromwell's inquisitors, he went in & related y^e whole story, and all the circumstances, concluding with these remarkable words, That Cromwell w'd certainly die that day seven year that the battle was fought.

"The strangeness of his relation caused Mr. Thorowgood to order his son John, then about 12 years of age, to write it in full length in his common place book, & to take it from Lindsey's own mouth. This common place book, and likewise y^e same story writen in other books, I am sure is still preserv'd in y^e family of y^e Thorowgoods: But how far Lindsey is to be believed, & how far y^e story is to be accounted incredible, is left to y^e reader's faith and judgment, & not to any determination of our own."

Replies to Minor Queries.

Gig Hill (Vol. iii., p. 222.).—Perhaps your correspondent is mistaken in saying that "there is no indication of anything in the land to warrant the name." At least, the very fact of its being a hill is suspicious. If I could venture to affront you with a pun, I should say, that it seems to me very natural that the top of a hill should look like a gig. Mercy on us! do words wear out so fast? Why, I have not reached three-score, and did not I "whip my gig" when I was an "infant"?—not an infant born in a remote province, sucking in archaism with my mother's milk, playing with heirloom toys, and calling them by obsolete names, but a smart little cockney, born and bred in the parish of St. Andrew, Holborn, where, no doubt, there were gig-whipping brats plenty. In the crowded state of your columns, you would not thank me for enlarging on the top-hic, or I should really feel disposed to enter into a dissertation on the nature and characteristic differences of whipping-tops, humming-tops, peg-tops, and gigs. As to the latter, it certainly occurs to me, now that the question is raised, that I have not seen such a thing for a long time; though I fancy gigs lying in the shop-windows, as they did at a period when I was more likely to observe them; and if they have become so far forgotten, it may be worth while, for the sake of Shakspeare, to say that they were generally (as far as I remember always) made of horn; and therefore, when Holofernes says "Go, whip thy gig" (which means just the same as Mr. Oldbuck's "Sew your sampler, monkey!"), Moth replies, "Lend me your horn to make one, and I will whip about your infamy circum circa; a gig of a cuckold's horn!" It is enough to add that the gig was made of the tip of the horn, and looked, while spinning, like an inverted extinguisher. It was hollow, but my impression is that there was sometimes lead at the bottom of the inside. Even with the ballast, it was a ticklish, volatile, kickety thing, much more difficult to set up and to keep up than the sober whipping-top, and bearing somewhat the same relation to one in bulk and motion, {284}that a ship's gig may do to herself, or a gig on land to a coach. As to Gig Hill, however, unless it has a conical top, some other explanation must be sought.

N. B.

Epigram against Burke (Vol. iii., P. 243.).—

The author of these lines was Warren Hastings himself; his private secretary (Mr. Evans) sat by his side during the trial, and saw him write the above. My authority is a niece of Mr. Evans, who formed one of her uncle's family at the period of the trial.

N. M.

Engraved Portrait (Vol. iii., p. 209.).—This is the portrait of Samuel Clarke, the ejected minister of Bennet Fink, London. I have three impressions of this engraving now before me. Two of these are in an illustrated Granger, and are in different states, the earlier one having no shading in the background. The third copy is prefixed to—

"A Collection of the Lives of Ten Eminent Divines, Famous in their Generations for Learning, Prudence, Piety, and painfuless in the work of the Ministry, &c. By Sa. Clarke, Preacher of the Gospel in St. Bennet Fink, London, 1662." 4to.

Very likely the same plate had been previously used for some other of Clarke's numerous publications. At the end of the verses beneath the portrait, my copies have "P.V.A.M. fecit," which, I suppose, are the initials of Peter Vinke.

John I. Dredge.

A full and interesting account of this worthy divine is given in Granger, vol. v. p. 73.; and the quatrain will be found annexed to a brief account of the same portrait in Ames's English Heads, p. 43.

J. F. Y.

Salgado's Slaughter-house (Vol. ii., p. 358.).—Your correspondent asks, Who was Salgado? and his question has not yet, I believe, been answered. James Salgado, whose name does not appear in any biographical dictionary, though it deserves to do, and whose pieces are unnoticed in Peck's Catalogue, though they should certainly not have been omitted, was a Spanish priest, who renounced the Roman Catholic belief, and was imprisoned by the Inquisition, and after undergoing many sufferings made his escape to England in the latter part of the reign of Charles II. His history is contained in An Account of his Life and Sufferings, in a 4to. tract in my possession, entitled, A Confession of Faith of James Salgado, a Spaniard, and sometimes a Priest in the Church of Rome, London, 1681, 4to. Watt and Lowndes both notice some of his pieces, but their lists are very imperfect, and do not comprise the tract, of which your correspondent gives the title, and which is also in my possession, and several others which I have noted in my copy of my Confession, but which it is perhaps unnecessary to enumerate here.

James Crossley.

Mathew's (not Matthew's) Mediterranean Passage (Vol. iii., p. 240.).—I have a copy of this work, and shall have pleasure in forwarding it to Mercurii for perusal, if he will address a note to me, which the publisher of "Notes and Queries" will forward.

Nibor.

Oxford, March 29. 1851.

The Mitre and the "Cloven Tongues" (Vol. iii., p. 146.).—My attention has just been directed to the remark of your correspondent L. M. M. R., who adduces the miracle of the "cloven tongues as of fire" as having supplied the form of the mitre.

This is an old explanation; but your correspondent does not appear to be aware that "cloven" has been rejected by high classical authority, as not being a correct interpretation of the word διαμεριζόμεναι. The exact translation is, "And tongues as of fire appeared, being distributed to them." The same verb is used in the passage, "They parted my garments among them,"—parted or distributed—the exact equivalent.

It appears to me that the translators have here made an extraordinary blunder. They have, I think, mistaken διαμηρίζω for διαμερίζω. For the peculiar meaning of the former verb I beg to refer those who have not observed it, to Liddell and Scott's Lexicon. The substitution of a letter here (η for ε) would give to the Scripture term a significance, which, though analogous to that of the current translation, is immeasurably distant from the exact interpretation.

Hughes Frazer Halle.

Chudleigh, March 24. 1851.

Slums (Vol. iii., p. 224.).—This word is, I take it, an Americanism, being an abbreviation of settlements.

The back settlements and back slums are used synonymously.

D. Q.

"God's Acre" (Vol. ii., p. 56.).—On looking back to some of your old numbers I find W. H. K. has never been answered with regard to the above application of the term to churchyards. Longfellow (Liverpool edition, 1850, p. 36.) commences one of his poems thus:

Whether this may be any help to W. H. K., I know not, but I cannot refrain from the Query—What is the Saxon phrase alluded to?

W. H. P.

{285}

Wages in the last Century (Vol. iii., p. 143.).—I have a note on this subject which is at A. A.'s service, extracted from the Gentleman's Magazine for May 1732, vol. ii p. 771.:—

"Wages (Yearly) appointed by the Justices, A.D. 1732, to be taken by the Servants in the County of Kent.

I send the note as I have it in my commonplace book; but I should think that the periodical from which the above is extracted, contains much that would suit A. A.'s purpose.

E. S. Taylor.

Martham, Norfolk.

Tradesmen's Signs (Vol. iii., p. 224.).—The projecting signs over tradesmen's shop-doors were removed under the London Paving Act, 6 Geo. III. c. 26. s. 17. In the Percy History of London, i. 179., the act is erroneously said to have been passed in 1762. From Malcolm's Anecdotes of London, pp. 468, 469., it seems that the clause in question was inserted in the act in consequence of inquiries by a committee appointed by the Court of Common Council in 1764. Mr. Peter Cunningham, in the "London Occurrences" prefixed to his Handbook for London, says: "1766. The house-signs of London taken down."

No doubt the existing Metropolitan Paving Acts contain clauses which will prevent tradesmen from again putting up projecting signs.

C. H. Cooper.

Cambridge.

Standfast's Cordial Comforts, &c. (Vol. iii., p. 143.).—Abhba will find in a catalogue of curious books published by G. Bumstead, 205. High Holborn, an early edition of Standfast. It is described thus:

"Standfast (R.), A Little Handful of Cordial Comforts, and a Caveat against Seducers; with the Blind Man's Meditations, and a Dialogue Between a Blind Man and Death, 12mo. 1684."

This may assist Abhba in his researches.

Z.

St. Pancras (Vol. ii., p. 496.).—Your correspondent Mr. Yeowell asks where C. J. Smith's collection of MSS., cuttings and prints, &c. relating to the parish of St. Pancras, are deposited? It is in the library of Richard Percival, Esq., 9. Highbury Park, Islington.

Can any of your readers give an account of St. Pancras? He was martyred May 12, 304.

R.

Lines on "Woman's Will" (Vol. i., p. 247.).—Although somewhat late in the day, I send you the following paragraph from the Examiner of May 31, 1829:

"Woman's Will.—The following lines (says a correspondent of the Brighton Herald) were copied from the pillar erected on the Mount in the Dane-John Field, formerly called the Dungeon Field, Canterbury:

'Where is the man who has the power and skill

To stem the torrents of a woman's will?

For if she will, she will, you may depend on't,

And if she won't, she won't so there's an end on't."'

H. C.

Workington.

Scandal against Queen Elizabeth (Vol. ii., p. 393.; Vol. iii., p. 11.).—In Hubback on the Evidence of Succession, p. 253, after some remarks on the word "natural," not of itself in former times denoting illegitimacy, this passage occurs:

"But as early as the time of Elizabeth the word natural, standing alone, had acquired something of its present meaning. The Parliament, in debating upon the act establishing the title to the crown in the Queen's issue, thought it proper to alter the words 'issue lawfully begotten,' into 'natural-born issue,' conceiving the latter to be a more delicate phrase. But this created a suspicion among the people, that the Queen's favourite, Leicester, intended after her death to set up some bastard of his own, pretending it was born of her, and bred up privately."—Duke of Buckingham On Treasons, cited Amos's Fortescue, p. 154.

J. H. L.

Coggeshall Job (Vol. iii., p. 167.).—Does J. C. allude to the tradition that the Coggeshall people placed hurdles in the stream to turn the river, and chained up the wheelbarrow when the mad dog bit it?

J. H. L.

Whale caught at Greenwich before the Death of Cromwell (Vol. iii., p. 207.).—B. B. wishes a record {286}of the capture of a whale at Greenwich, immediately previous to Cromwell's death. I take leave to inform him that, in a tract entitled A Catalogue of natural Rarities, with great Industry, Cost and thirty Years' Travel in foreign Countries collected, by Robert Hubert, alias Forges, Gent., and sworn Servant to his Majesty. And Dayly to be seen at the Place called the Musick House, at the Miter, near the West End of St. Paul's Church, 1664, there is the following item:—

"The vein of the tongue of that whale that was taken up at Greenwich, a little before Cromwell's death."

W. Pinkerton.

Ham.

Fronte Capillatâ, &c. (Vol. iii., pp. 8. 43. 124.).—The following lines from Tasso's Amore Fuggitivo contain the same figure as the Latin quoted above:

Robert Snow.

The lines quoted by your correspondent are from Peacock's "Headlong Hall," and are imitated from Machiavelli's "Capitolo dell' Occasione." The whole air stands thus; the second stanza differing slightly from the version given by Mr. Burt. The lines are very pretty, at least in my opinion.

W. R. M.

John Sanderson, or the Cushion-dance (Vol. ii., p. 517.).—Though I am unable to answer your correspondent Mac's inquiry as to the antiquity of this dance, it may interest him as well as others of the readers of "Notes and Queries" to know, that when Walpole made up his mind to abandon his Excise bill (which met with a still fiercer opposition out of doors than in the House of Commons), he signified his intention to a party of his adherents at the supper-table, by quoting the first line of the accompanying song:—

This, at least, shows the popularity of this dance in the reign of George II.

H. C.

Workington.

George Steevens and William Stevens (Vol. iii, p. 230.).—The late Sir J. A. Park wrote Memoirs of William Stevens, the Treasurer of Queen Anne's Bounty, and the biographer of Jones of Nayland. As little resemblance must have existed between this gentleman and "the Puck of commentators," George Steevens, as between the two Harveys:

J. H. M.

Memoirs of Stevens by the late Sir James Allan Park have been published, and are well worth reading; but this Stevens was not George Steevens, the Shakespearian commentator, but William, Treasurer of Queen Anne's Bounty, one of the most meek and humble minded of men.

"He was inferior to none in profound knowledge, and steady practice of the doctrines and discipline of the Church of England; austere to himself alone, charitable and indulgent towards others, he attracted the young by the cheerfulness of his temper, and the old by the sanctity of his life."

Miss Bockett should not confound such a holy character with George Steevens.

E. H.

Memoirs of George Steevens, Esq., F.R.S. and F.S.A. (Vol. iii., p. 119.).—In answer to A. Z. it may be stated that a brief memoir of Mr. Steevens was given in Nichols's Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century, Vol. ii. p. 680.; further anecdotes, and some of his letters, in vol. v. of Nichols's Literary Illustrations; and further letters (his correspondence with Dr. Percy, Bishop of Dromore), in vol. vii. of the latter work; besides many incidental notices, which will be found by reference to the indexes. On the last occasion a copy of his portrait by Dance, was attached; and in vol. v. of the Literary Illustrations is an engraving of his monument by Flaxman, in Poplar Chapel.

N.

Tradescant (Vol. iii., p. 119.).—At what period the elder Tradescant came into England is not with certainty known, but it is supposed to have been about the end of Queen Elizabeth's reign, or the beginning of that of James I. He obtained the title of Royal Gardener circa 1629.

It may not be superfluous to mention (on the authority of Allen's History of Lambeth, p. 142.) that formerly the three following lines were on the monument in Lambeth churchyard, until its {287}reparation by public subscription in 1773, when they were left out:

"This monument was erected at the charge of Hester Tradescant, the relict of John Tradescant, late deceased, who was buried the 25th of April, 1662."

Alfred W. H.

Kennington.

Origin of Harlequins (Vol. iii., p. 165.).—Your correspondent and querist E. L. N. wishes for an account of the Origin of Harlequins. I beg to refer E. L. N. to an account of the Hellequines, or "La Mesnie Hellequin," given by M. Paul Paris, in his work on the Manuscripts François de la Bib. du Roi, vol. i. p. 322. M. Paris says:

"On donnoit ce nom (Hellequines) à des espèces de feux follets ou génies plutôt malfaisants que favorables, et plutôt moqueurs que malfaisants.... L'origine de la tradition de la Mesnie Hellequin se perd dans l'obscurité des temps. On l'entendoit surtout bruire dans les environs de la ville d'Arles.... J'ignore la première origine de cette locution; mais ce qui me semble incontestable, c'est qu'on confondit facilement la Mesnie Hellequin avec celle 'de la Mort,' famille bariolée de rouge et de noir, et dont le manteau de cérémonie devoit être un grand pan de toile ou linceul. Déjà le lecteur a devancé la conséquence qu'il faut tirer de tout cela; la Mesnie Hellequin, partie nécessaire des cortéges effrayants ou grotesques dans le moyen-âge, est devenue insensiblement, sous la main des arrangeurs, notre famille d'Arlequin. Le costume bariolé d'Arlequin n'est rien autre que le fantastique costume du représentant de la Mort.... Et, si ce que je viens de dire est fondé, on ne répètera plus après Ménage (Gilles), que le mot Arlequin fut pris d'abord, sur la fin du XVI siècle, par un certain bouffon italien que le Président Harlay avoit accueilli. Il est certain que le mot Arlequin se trouve très-anciennement dans un grand nombre de mystères.

"'Numquid me velis,' ecrivoit Jean Raulin, mort en 1514, 'antiquam illam familiam Harlequini, revocare, ut videatur mortuus inter mundanæ curiæ nebulas et caligines equitare?'"

By the above extracts, which I fear you will find too long, harlequinades would seem rather to be derived from the wanton pranks of sprites than the coarse gambols of buffoons; and this derivation would certainly best agree with the accepted character of the modern harlequin.

H. C. C.

"Predeceased" and "Designed" (Vol. iii., p. 143.).—The former word is used in an active sense by Shakspeare, in his "Rape of Lucrece:"

"Designed," in the sense of "designated," is employed by Locke:

"'Tis not enough to make a man a subject, to convince him that there is regal power in the world; but there must be ways of designing and knowing the person to whom the regal power of right belongs."

Cowgill.

"Quadrijugis invectus equis," &c. (Vol. ii., p. 391.).—These lines, in which "veriis" and "antesolat" are, of course, misprints for "variis" and "antevolat," apply with such peculiar exactness to Guido's celebrated Aurora, at the Rospigliosi Palace, that I cannot but think the painting has given rise to the lines. Besides, in the ancient mythology, the Horæ are said to be three in number, daughters of Jupiter and Themis, and one of their offices was harnessing the horses of the Sun. It is unlikely, therefore, that any classic author would mention them as being seven in number.

C. I. R.

St. John's Bridge Fair (Vol. iii., p. 88.).—Perhaps in the county of Northampton, and in the city of Peterborough, where a fair, commencing October 2d, is still called "Bridge Fair." The parish church of Peterborough is dedicated to St. John Baptist; but a fair on the saint's day would be too near the other, and probably more ancient fair, which is held on old St. Peter's Day, to whom the cathedral church is dedicated.

Arun.

Anticipations of Modern Ideas by Defoe (Vol. iii., pp. 137. 195.).—It is a singular fact, to which I do not remember a reference has hitherto been made, that Defoe, in his Life and Adventures of Captain Singleton, has foreshadowed the discovery by recent travellers of a great inland lake in the South of Africa. He describes his adventurous hero and companions, during their attempt to cross this vast continent from Mozambique to Angola, as having, on the ninth day of their journey, come in "view of a great lake of water."

"The next day," he adds, "which was the tenth from our setting out, we came to the edge of this lake, and happily for us, we came to it at the south point of it, for to the north we could see no end of it; so we passed by it, and travelled three days by the side of it."—Life, Adventures, and Piracies of Captain Singleton, chap. vi.

According to a rough calculation by one of the party, they were, a few days before reaching it, 700 miles from the coast of Mozambique, and 1500 from the Cape of Good Hope. Now Messrs. Murray and Oswell, the enterprising travellers to whom we owe the discovery of this vast South African lake, describe it as being in longitude 24° East, latitude 19° South; a position not very wide apart from that indicated in Defoe's amusing fiction.

T. C. Smith.

Lord Howard of Effingham (Vol. iii., p. 244.).—I submit that the passages quoted by your correspondent are not sufficient evidence to lead us to conclude that that nobleman ever was a Protestant. As to the "neglect of reverence to the Holy Sacrament," it is only said that the priests might pretend that as a cause; and it is not to be supposed that an ambassador would so far forget himself as to show any disrespect to the religion of the {288}prince he was sent to. Besides, it is likely that Lord Howard was chosen for the embassy as being a Catholic, and therefore more acceptable to a prince of the same religion.

2nd. Fuller's words only refer to testimony on a disputed fact, on which Catholic evidence the effect quoted by him would have peculiar weight.

3rd. The words to Garnet, who had declared his innocence and abhorrence of the imputed crime, are such as a Catholic would be most likely to use.

4th. The word "our," in the royal instructions, is the word of form, and resembles the editorial "we." In royal instructions to Mr. Shiel at Florence, Mr. Wyse at Naples, or Mr. More O'Ferrall at Malta, her Majesty would use the words "our religion;" would that imply that any or all of those gentlemen were Protestants?

After all, Lord Howard may have conformed to the court religion after the period of the Armada: occasional conformity was frequent at the period.

Kerriensis.

Separation of the Sexes in Church (Vol. ii., p. 94.; Vol. iii., p. 94.).—In Collectanea Topographica, &c., vol. iii. p. 134., is printed the "Account of the Proctors of the Church of Yeovil, co. Somerset, 36 Hen. VI. 1457-8." The learned editor says:

"The first item is remarkable, as affording an instance of seats being made subject to sale at so early a period;" and proceeds: "it may be observed that the two sexes must have sat in different parts of the church, as, with only one exception, the seats are let to other persons of the same sex as before."

Llewellyn.

Separation of the Sexes in Time of Divine Service (Vol. ii., p. 94.).—A proof of the correctness of the remark advanced in this note is afforded by the practice followed in the little church of Covington, Huntingdonshire, where a few of the old open seats remain towards the western end, in which each sex still sits on its proper side, although the custom does not hold with respect to the pews which some of the farmers and others have erected for themselves at the eastern end.

Arun.

Separation of the Sexes at Church.—Many of your correspondents have taken up the separation of the living at church, but none have alluded to the dead. I extract the following from a deed of the 34th of Elizabeth:—

"But also in the two severall vawtes or towmbes in the sayd chappell, and in the sowthe syde of the same, and in the wall of the sayd church, ffor themselves only to bury in; that is to say, in the upper of the same, standing eastwards, to bury the deade bodyes of the men, being ancestors of the sayd A. B.; and in the lower, standing westwards, to bury the deade bodies of the women, being wyves or children female of his, the said A. B.'s ancestors."

Perhaps some of your correspondents can tell us whether such separate vaults were customary?

Vox Populi Vox Dei (Vol. i., p. 370.).—Your correspondent Daniel Rock states these words to have been chosen by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Simon Mepham, as his text for the sermon he preached when Edward III. was called to the throne; and in your Notices to Correspondents, Vol. iii., p. 254., you repeat the statement.

The prelate by whom the sermon was preached was not Simon Mepham, but his predecessor, Walter Reynolds, who was Archbishop of Canterbury when the second Edward was deposed, and when Edward III. was crowned, on February 1, 1327. This Walter Reynolds died on November 16, 1327, and Simon Mepham was appointed his successor on December 11, 1327. John Toland, in his Anglia Libera, p. 114., has this reference to the sermon which was preached by the Archbishop Reynolds on the occasion of the king's coronation:

"To Edward I. succeeded his son Edward II., who growing an intolerable tyrant, was in a parliament summoned by himself formally accused of misgovernment, and on his own acknowledging the truth of this charge, solemnly deposed. When his son, Edward III., was elected with universal consent, Walter, the Archbishop of Canterbury, preached the coronation sermon, and took these words for his text, "Vox populi Vox Dei, the voice of the people is the voice of God,"—so little did they dream in those days of the divine right of monarchy, or that all power did not originally derive from the people, for whom and by whom all governments are erected and maintained."

Sir Harris Nicolas in his Synopsis of the Peerage, and Dugdale in his Monasticon, give the name of this Archbishop as Walter Reynolds. Sir Richard Baker, in his Chronicle, describes him as Walter Reginald; and in Hume's England he is called Walter de Reynel.

St. Johns.

Mazer Wood (Vol. iii., p. 239.).—The Querist asks, "Has the word Mazer any signification in itself?"

It is used to signify a cup. Vide Walter Scott's Lord of the Isles, where Robert Bruce is speaking:

And it is probably derived from the Irish "Maeddher," a standing cup, generally of wood, of a quadrangular form, with a handle on each of the sides. The puzzle was how to drink out of it, which was done from the angles. A silver "Maeddher" was presented to Lord Townshend when leaving Ireland, who puzzled many of his English friends by placing it before them filled with claret. Uninitiated persons usually attempted to drink from the flat side, and poured the wine over their clothes. I think another was presented to Lord Normanby when in Ireland. We see gutta percha {289}cups and buckets everywhere now-a-days. Perhaps such an utensil might have been among the dishes, &c. mentioned in the Catalogue of the Tradescant Museum.

Kerriensis.

Traditions from remote Periods through few Hands (Vol. iii., p. 237.).—The following facts may not be uninteresting on this subject.

The late Maurice O'Connell of Derrynane, co. Kerry, died early in 1825, and would have completed 99 years on the 31st of March in that year. The writer hereof has heard him tell anecdotes derived from the conversation of Daniel M^cCarthy, of the same co., who died about 1740, aged at least 108 years. This Daniel M^cCarthy was commonly known by the nick-name of "Dhonald Bhin," or "Yellow Dan," and was the first man that ran away from the battle of Aughrim. There is a short account of him in Smith's History of Kerry, in which he is mentioned as lately deceased. You have thus a period of over 200 years, the traditions of which might be derived through three persons, the survivor of whom, your correspondent, is but middle aged. I remember being told in the co. Clare, circiter 1828, of an individual then lately deceased, who remembered the siege of Limerick by General Ginkle, and the news of the celebrated treaty of Limerick. It is to be wished that your readers who reside in, or may visit Ireland, would take an interest in this subject. I am certain that in remote parts of the country much curious tradition could be thus brought to light; and it would be interesting to compare the accounts of great public events, as remembered and handed down by the peasantry, with those which we take on the faith of historians.

As relating to this subject, I may refer to the allusion made in page 250. of the same Number to the Countess of Desmond, who was said to have lived to so great an age. I have seen the picture alluded to at Glanlearne in Valencia, the seat of the knight of Kerry; and it must have been taken at a comparatively early period of life, as the Earl of Desmond was outlawed, and his estates confiscated, in the reign of Elizabeth. Some record of how this old lady's jointure was provided for might yet be discovered, and the period of her decease thus ascertained.

Kerriensis.

Latin Epigram on the Duchess of Eboli (Vol. iii., p. 208.).—This beautiful epigram, which C. R. H. has somewhat mutilated even in the two lines which he gives of it, was written by Jerome Amaltheus, who died in 1574, the year in which Henry III. of France came to the throne; so that it is unlikely at least that the "Amor" was meant for Mangirow, his "minion." In the edition of the poems of the three brothers Amalthei, which I possess, and which was printed at Amsterdam in 1689, the epigram runs—

I have seen it thus translated:

The relationship between the Duchess of Eboli and Mangirow I do not remember. Were they brother and sister? or was she ever known as Leonilla?

Among Jerome Amaltheus's other epigrams I find several about this "Acon;" and one, entitled "De duabus Amicis," begins—

The mistress of Philip II. (who here, by the by, seems to have recovered her lost eye) would hardly have been the mistress of an Italian poet.

H. A. B.

Trin. Coll. Cam.

"Harry Parry, when will you marry" (Vol. iii., p. 207.).—E. H. has omitted the last line, which, however, is well known. May it not have the same meaning as the lines in the "Marquis de Carabas" of Béranger:

The nursery rhyme may have been sung to the young Baron to teach him his feudal privileges, as the lines—

are used to inculcate the rights of a white man on the minds of infant cotton planters in the Southern States.

J. H. L.

Visions of Hell (Vol. iii., p. 70.).—In solving the Query propounded by F. R. A. as to "whether Bunyan was the author of the Visions?" it is very necessary that all the editions should be known of and collated. I have one not yet referred to, styled The Visions of John Bunyan, being his last Remains, giving an Account of the Glories of Heaven, the Terrors of Hell, and of the World to come, London, printed and sold by J. Hollis, Shoemaker Row, Blackfriars, pp. 103., with an address to the reader, subscribed "thy soul's well-wisher, John Bunyan," without date. "Thomas Newby, of Epping, Essex," is written in it; he might have been only the first owner of the book, which was certainly published before the year 1828 or 20, but I should say not much earlier.

Blowen.

{290}

"Laus tua non tua Fraus," &c. (Vol. i., p. 416.). Verse Lyon.—Puttenham's Arte of English Poesie, published in 1589, contains an earlier allusion to this epigram than any of those mentioned by your correspondents at Vol. ii., p. 77., and assigns to Pope Alexander [Qy. VI.] the doubtful honour of being the subject of it. The passage is at p. 11., and is as follows:—

"Another of their pretie inuentions was to make a verse of such wordes as lay their nature and manner of construction and situation might be turned backward word by word, and make another perfit verse, but of quite contrary sence, as the gibing monke that wrote of Pope Alexander these two verses:

'Laus tua non tua fraus, virtue non copia rerum,

Scandere te faciunt hoc decus eximium:'

which if ye will turne backward, they make two other good verses, but of a contrary sence, thus:

'Eximium decus hoc faciunt te scandere, rerum

Copia, non virtus, fraus tua, non tua laus;'

and they call it Verse Lyon."

Query, Why? and where else is Verse Lyon alluded to?

J. F. M.

Passage from Cymbeline (Vol. ii., p. 135.).—

The word painting (your correspondent's stumbling-block) evidently means resemblance—resemblance of character, and as such exactly corresponds to the German word Ebenbild, an image or painting, which is used in the same sense; e.g. Sie hat das Ebenbild ihres Mutters, "She is the very image of her mother."

Cranmore.

Rue de Cerf, 6. Brussels.

Engraved Warming-pans (Vol. iii., pp. 84. 115.).—As an earlier instance of this custom, it may be worth notice that I have one which was purchased some years ago at the village of Whatcote in Warwickshire; it is engraved with a dragon, and the date 1601. I think it probable that it originally came from Compton Wyniatt, the ancient seat of the Earls [now Marquis] of Northampton; the supporters of the Compton family being dragons, and Whatcote being the next village to Compton Wyniatt.

Spes.

Symbolism of the Fir-cone (Vol. i., p. 247.).—The Fir-cone on the Thyrsus—a practice very general throughout Greece, but which is very prevalent at Athens, may perhaps, in some degree, account for the connexion of the Fir-cone (surmounting the Thyrsus) with the worship of Bacchus. Incisions are made in the fir-trees for the purpose of obtaining the turpentine, which distils copiously from the wound. This juice is mixed with the new wine in large quantities; the Greeks supposing that it would be impossible to keep it any length of time without this mixture. The wine has in consequence a very peculiar taste, but is by no means unpleasant after a little use. This, as we learn from Plutarch, was an ancient custom (Sympos. Quæst. iii. and iv. p. 528. edn. Wytten); the Athenians, therefore, might naturally have placed the Fir-cone in the hands of Bacchus. ("Lord Aberdeen's Journals," Appendix to Walpole's Memoirs of Turkey, &c., vol. i. p. 605.)

F. B. Relton.

Dr. Robert Thomlinson (Vol. i., p. 350.).—The gentleman who is very anxious for the communication of any matter illustrative of the life of the doctor, his family, &c., will find considerable useful and interesting information relating to him, his widow, and brother, by referring to the under-mentioned Reports from the Commissioners for inquiring concerning Charities:

5th Report, pages 67. 69.; 23rd Report, pages 56. 450.; 31st Report, pages 754. 757.

There is a slight allusion to the doctor in the Returns of Corporate Offices and Charitable Funds, &c., p. 375.

H. Edwards.

Touching for the Evil (Vol. iii., p. 93.).—St. Thomas Aquinas refers the practice of touching for the evil by French kings to Clovis. See a work published in 1633, by Simon Favoul, entitled, Du Pouvoir que les Rois de France ont de guérir les Ecrouelles; also a work by Du Laurens, entitled, De Mirabili Strumas sanandi vi, regibus Galliarum Christianis divinitus concessa, libri duo, Paris, 1609, in 8vo.

Edward the Confessor is said to have been the first English king who touched for the evil. Consequently the English can hardly be said to have owed their supposed power to their pretensions to the crown of France.

E. J. R.

Drax Free School (Vol. ii., p. 199.).—It appears by the will of Charles Read, dated July 30, 1669, that that gentleman had at his own charge erected a school-house at Drax, which he designed for a free school, and for the habitation of a schoolmaster, to instruct the children of the inhabitants of that parish gratis, to read, write, and cast accounts, and in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, as occasion should require; and that he had erected six almshouses at Drax, for six aged and impotent people at that parish, and the lodgment of six poor boys; and for the support and maintenance of the said school, master, alms people, and poor boys, he directed his executors to lay out 2000l. in {291}the purchase of freehold land of 120l. per annum in or near Drax, to be conveyed to trustees to let such land at the best improved rent, for the purposes and uses mentioned in his will; and he appointed the lord mayor and aldermen of York, visitors of the school and almshouses.

At the time of the inquiry by the charity commissioners, the estates purchaser in pursuance of the directions of Mr. Read's will amounted to 391 acres of land, let at 542l. per annum, and there was an accumulation of stock of 12,700l. in the Three per Cents, the whole income being 924l. 9s. 6d. per annum.

Mr. Dyson will find a copious account of this school, &c., in the following Reports of the Commissioners: XXI. p. 598.; XXXII. part 2d. p. 828.; and the latter gives a full detail of proceedings in Chancery, and other matters connected with the administration of the trust.

Henry Edwards.

Enigmatical Epitaph on the Rev. John Mawer (Vol. iii., pp. 184. 248.).—Perhaps it may be of service to J. H. to know that Arthur Llewellyn Tudor Kaye Mawer, referred to by J. T. A., was a short time ago an assistant bookseller at Oxford, and may be heard of by addressing a line to Mr. Vincent, Herald Office, or Mr. Wheeler, bookseller, Oxford.

Nibor.

Treatise by Engelbert, Archbishop of Treves (Vol. i., p. 214.).—Mr. Sanson may probably find the information he desires in the reprint of Bishop Cosin's History of Popish Transubstantiation, London, 1840, in which the references are verified, and the quotations given in full length.

T. J.

King John at Lincoln (Vol. iii., p. 141.).—There is no question of Matt. Paris alluding here to the old prophecy which forbade a king's wearing his crown in Lincoln, or, as some think, even entering the city. Although he makes John the first to break through the superstition, yet the same is attributed to his predecessor Stephen, who is described by H. Huntingdon as entering the city fearlessly—"prohibentibus quibusdam superstitiosis." This was after the great disasters of Stephen's reign; but as the succession eventually departed from his line, Lord Lyttleton observes that the citizens might nevertheless be strengthened in their credulity; and Henry II. certainly humoured it so far as to wear his crown only in the suburb of Wigford. John seems to have been very partial to the place, and visited it repeatedly, as did many of his successors. Many parallel superstitions might, no doubt, be gathered, as that of Oxford, and Alexander the Great at Babylon, &c.

B.

Lincoln.

Haybands in Seals (Vol. iii., p. 186.).—In your paper for March 8. I observe a Query by Mr. M. A. Lower respecting seals. It appears that Mr. Lower has in his possession one or two seals, temp. Henry VII., which are impressed on haybands, that is to say, the wax is encircled by a twisted wisp of hay, or split straw; and, if I rightly understand Mr. Lower, no device is apparent on the wax, but some ends of the hay or straw protrude from the surface of it. Under these circumstances Mr. Lower states his opinion that such seals belonged to mediæval gentlemen who occupied their time in fattening stock,—simply graziers.

It may be interesting to some of your correspondents, and especially to Mr. Lower, to know that a few seals, both pendent and impressed on the parchment itself, within haybands, may be found of as early a date as the reign of Edward II. From that time the fashion become very prevalent: in the reigns of Richard II., Henry IV., Henry V., Henry VI., and, indeed, down to the period of Elizabeth, it was the common practice to secure the wax impression in this manner. Almost all the impressions of the Privy Seal of Henry V., called "the Eagle," are made on haybands. It is needless to give further examples, as they must be well known to all antiquaries who have studied the history of seals. It is not from the examination of a few specimens of early seals that a general conclusion is to be rationally drawn; and it is to be hoped that Mr. Lower may, even yet, be induced to abandon his singular theory of graziers' seals.

T. Hudson Turner.

If your correspondents on this subject will refer to the first volume of Kalendars and Inventories of his Majesty's Exchequer, published by the Commissioners of Public Records, they will find in the Introduction, written by Sir Francis Palgrave, at page cxlvii., a fac-simile representation of a letter upon paper from James IV. of Scotland to Henry VII., dated July 12, 1502, showing the seal encircled by a rush ring. At page cxxxvii. it is stated that in the fifteenth century a rush ring surrounding the fragile wax was not unfrequently used for the purpose of preserving it.

S. S. S.

Aver (Vol. iii., pp. 42. 157.).—Spelman, in his Glossary, derives averia from averare pro laborare. Averare he derives from the French ouvre and ouvrage, "vel potius a Latino operare, o et p, ut solent, in a et u, conversis." "Hence," he says, "our ancestors called beasts of burden averia, and the Scotch called them avaria." In Northumberland, he elsewhere adds, "they call a lazy, sluggish horse 'a faulse aver,' or 'afer.'"

Averum signified goods and chattels, and personal property in general, and, in this sense, is derived from the French avoir. It also signified the royal treasure, as appears from the following extract front the will of Philip Augustus, sub anno {292}1190. After directing his rents, services, and oblations to be brought annually to Paris, he adds—

"In receptionibus averi nostri, Adam clericus noster presens erit, et eas scribet, et singuli habeant singulas claves de singulis archis in quibus reponetur averum nostrum in templo."

The following story, which illustrates P.'s Query, is told by Blackstone:—

"Sir Thomas More (when a student on his travels) is said to have puzzled a pragmatic professor at Bruges, who gave a universal challenge to dispute with any person in any science: in omni scibili, et de quolibet ente. Upon which Mr. More sent him this question, 'Utrum averia carucæ, capta in vetito namio, sint irreplegibilia, Whether beasts of the plough, taken in withernam, are incapable of being replevied:'"

—a question likely enough to pose any man except an English lawyer.

Cudyn Gwyn.

Aver or Aiver is a word in common use in the south of Scotland for a horse. In Burns's poem entitled "The Dream," there is this couplet:

J. Ss.

Aver (Vol. iii., p. 42.).—Your correspondents G. M. and D. 2. are at cross purposes. The latter is unquestionably right in his opinion about haver cake, haver in that instance being the German Hafer, Sw. Havre, &c., as held by Brockett (North Country Words) and Carr (Craven Glossary). But aver, averium, on which G. M. descants, is altogether a different word. As D. 2. requires the authority of a dictionary, allow me to refer him to Lacombe, Dictionnaire du vieux Langage François, where he will find:

And in the second, or supplementary volume of the same work:

"'Avers,' bestiaux qui nantissent une ferme à la campagne."

See also Jamieson (Scottish Dictionary):

"Aver, a cart-horse."

A suggestion may also be gathered from Webster under Average.

F. S. Q.

In the Chronicle of Jocelyn de Brakelond, at p. 29. of Tomlins's translation, mention is made of one Beodric,

"Lord of that town, whose demesne lands are now in the demesne of the Cellarer. And that which is now called Averland was the land of the rustics."

Again, at p. 30.:

The Cellarer was used freely to take all the dung-hills in every street, for his own use, unless it were before the doors of those who were holding averland; for to them only was it allowable to collect dung and to keep it."

To this a note is appended to the effect that

"Averland seems to have been ancient arable land so called, held by rustic drudges and villans."

At p. 29. the said Cellarer is stated

To have aver-peni, to wit, for each thirty acres two pence."^[8]

Roquefort, in his Glossaire de la Langue Romane, gives Aver, from avoir: "Bestiaux qui nantissent une ferme de campagne;" and Avè, "un troupeau de brebis," from ovis.

Raynouard, in the Nouveau Choix des Poésies des Troubadours, vol. ii., which commences the Lexique Roman, derives "Aver" also from Avoir; to signify possession generally I take it. 2dly, Troupeau,

Barbazan, in his short Glossary, derives the word from Avarus.

H. C. C.

I would inform D. 2. and others (Vol. iii., p. 42.) that aver, or haver-cake, which he states to be the name applied in North Yorkshire to the thin oat-cake in use there, is evidently derived from the Scandinavian words, Hafrar, Havre, Hafre, oats.

G. E. R. Gordon.

Stockholm.

"The Sword Flamberg" (Vol. iii., p. 168.)—An English Mother is informed that "Flamberge," or "Floberge," is the name of the sword won in battle from the Saracen admiral Anthenor by Mangis d'Aygremont, the hero of the romance of that name. Ancient swords were frequently "flamboyant," or with waved edges; more especially those used for purposes of state. The Dukes of Burgundy bore a two-handed sword of this form. Indeed, "flaming swords," as they were called, were worn down to the time of our Charles II., and perhaps later. It is rather singular that the ordinary synonyma for a sword should be "brand." The name of the weapon taken from King Bucar by the Cid was "Tizona," or the Fire-brand.

The flamboyant type may possibly be of Eastern origin. The krisses of the Malays, at the present day have serpentine blades.

W. J. Bernhard Smith.

Temple.

Cockade (Vol. iii., pp. 7. 196.).—The cockade was simply the knot of the riband that served to cock the broad flapped hat worn by military men in the seventeenth century, and which in fine weather, or going into action, &c., they used to cock, by means of hooks, laces, and ribands. We see still in the {293}cocked-hats of coachmen and beadles, the traces of these old ligaments. Hence the phrase to cock one's hat. Let me add one or two remarks on other points of dress arising out of old military habits. In old times coats were of the shape we now call frocks, and lined throughout, generally with a different colour from the outside. When a person in one of these coats was going about any active work, and particularly into fight, he doubled back his sleeves, and folded back the collar, which, being of a different colour, came to be what we now call the facings of military uniforms. The French, truer to their origin, still call them the "revers." So also on such occasions the broad skirts of the frock coat used to be hooked back not to impede the movements of the lower limbs, and thence the swallow tails of military uniforms. So also the high jack-boots, that covered the knees, used, in walking, to be turned down, and the inside being of a lighter colour, gave the idea of what are called top-boots.

C.

Miscellaneous.

NOTES ON BOOKS, SALES, CATALOGUES, ETC.

In the belief that the time has arrived when the history of our national architecture must be reconsidered, with a view to a revision of the classes or periods into which it has hitherto been divided, Mr. Sharpe has just put forth a handsomely illustrated volume, under the title of The Seven Periods of English Architecture defined and illustrated. Mr. Sharpe's proposal is, that these seven periods should be thus formed:—three belonging to the division Romanesque, under the titles of Saxon, Norman, and Transitional Periods; and the remaining four to the Gothic, viz. the Lancet, Geometrical, Curvilinear, and Rectangular Periods. We must, of course, refer our readers who desire to know the principles upon which Mr. Sharpe proposes this great change to the work itself, which is plain and to the purpose.

Mr. Bohn some time since became the purchaser of a large number of the copper-plates of Gillray's Caricatures. Having had impressions taken, and arranged them in one large volume, he sought the assistance of Mr. Wright, who had just then published his History of the House of Hanover, illustrated by Caricatures, and Mr. R. H. Evans, the well-known bibliopole, towards an anecdotical catalogue of the works of this clever satirist: and the result of the labours of these gentlemen has just been published under the title of Historical and Descriptive Account of the Caricatures of James Gillray, comprising a Political and Humorous History of the latter Part of the Reign of George III. The volume will be found not only an interesting key to Mr. Bohn's edition of Gillray, and a guide to those who may be making a separate collection of his works, but a pleasant illustration of the wit and satire which lashed the politicians and amused the public

"In the old time when George the Third was king."

Those who know the value of those historical researches which Sir F. Palgrave has already given to the world, will be glad to hear that the first volume of his History of Normandy and of England will probably be published before the close of the present month. In this first volume, which is described in the advertisement as containing the general relations of Mediæval Europe, the Carlovingian Empire, and the Danish Expeditions into Gaul, we understand the learned author has treated those expeditions at considerable length, and enters very fully into that of the decline of the Carlovingian Empire,—a portion of the work as important, as it is in a great measure new, to the English reader. Not the least valuable part of the book will be Sir Francis Palgrave's account of the nature and character of the Continental Chronicles, which form the substratum of his work, but which, existing only in the great collections of Duchesne, Bouquet, Pertz, &c., are generally very imperfectly known to English students.

Messrs. Sotheby and Wilkinson will sell, on Monday next, a collection of very rare and interesting Autograph Letters, more particularly illustrative of the period of the Civil Wars. On the same day they will also commence a Four-days' Sale of valuable Books, and Books of Engravings, chiefly from the library of a gentleman deceased, including the original edition of Stuart and Revett's Athens, a copy of Merian's Topographia Germaniæ containing nearly one thousand engravings, and many other works of high character.

Books Received.—Boswell's Life of Johnson, Illustrated, vol. i. This is the first volume of the National Illustrated Library, which the projectors describe "as an endeavour to bestow upon half-crown volumes for the many the same typographical accuracy, and the same artistic ability, hitherto almost exclusively devoted to high-priced books for the few." In choosing Boswell's Johnson for their first work, the projectors have shown excellent judgment; and we are bound to add that the book is not only well selected, but neatly printed, and illustrated with a number of excellent woodcuts.—Illustrations of Medieval Costume in England, &c., Part II. This second part deserves the same praise for cheapness as its predecessor.—The Cape and the Kafirs, the new volume of Bohn's cheap series, is a well-timed reprint of Mrs. Ward's Five Years in Kafirland, with some little alteration and abridgment, and the addition of some information for intending emigrants, from information supplied by published official reports.

Catalogues Received.—J. Miller's (43. Chandos Street) Catalogue No. XX. of Books Old and New; T. Kerslake's (3. Park Street, Bristol) Catalogue of Books lately bought; W. S. Lincoln's (Cheltenham House, Westminster Road) Sixty-seventh Catalogue of Low-priced books, mostly Second-hand; Williams and Norgate's (14. Henrietta Street, Covent Garden) Catalogue No. III. of Foreign Second-hand Books, and Books at reduced prices.

BOOKS AND ODD VOLUMES WANTED TO PURCHASE.

*** Letters stating particulars and lowest price, carriage free, to be sent to Mr. Bell, Publisher of "NOTES AND QUERIES," 186. Fleet Street.

Notices to Correspondents.

We are again compelled by the number and value of the communications, which have reached us, to present our Readers with an extra Eight Pages. We trust, therefore, we shall be excused if, with reference to what we stated a fortnight since, on the subject of making this enlargement permanent instead of occasional, we quote from a valued correspondent the mode he has kindly adopted with the view of promoting that increase of our circulation, upon which such permanent enlargement of our paper must depend. Nocab writes thus:—"Whenever I find an article in any Number which I know to be peculiarly congenial to the taste of any of my literary or scientific friends, I forward them a copy. A letter of thanks and an intention of future subscription has almost invariably been the result." We are sure that this hint will not be lost upon our friends.

P. will find his communication on Averia inserted in No. 69. p. 157.

S. H. H. Received, and will be taken care of.

Comets and Eclipses. We are requested by our valued correspondent C. to say that his Reply, p. 253., should have been headed Eclipses, and was intended to refer to the list of Eclipses (not Comets) in the work to which he refers. He was probably led into this slip of the pen by the manner in which S. P. O. R. had, in No. 73. p. 223. mixed up Comets and Eclipses in the same Query.

Jarltzberg has our best thanks. We receive his friendly suggestions in the spirit in which they are offered; and will, as far as practicable, attend to them. We trust he will receive in the same spirit our explanation, that the delay in inserting his communications arises chiefly from the difficulty in deciphering them. Our correspondents little know how greatly editorial labours are increased by this apparently trifling cause.

E. T. C. Our correspondent will find, on referring to our First Vol., p. 445., that the so-called French original of "Not a drum was heard," is only a clever literary hoax from the pen of Father Prout, which first appeared in Bentley's Miscellany.

J. B. C. A proof of the Sovereign of 1820; and if in very good condition, would perhaps sell for Two or Three Pounds.

Llewellyn. Will this correspondent favour us with his address, that we may forward a communication which we have received for him?

Ache is requested to say how a communication may reach him.

F. R. R. We have a further Query for this correspondent on the subject of Sir Andrew Chadwick, if he will favour us with his address.

Replies Received.—Epitaph in Hall's Discovery—Disinterment for Heresy—Mistletoe—The San Grail—MS. Cat. of Norman Nobility—Inedited Poetry—Mazer—Whale in the Thames—Facts in Natural History—Nicolson Family—Yankee—Cowdray—Scandal against Elizabeth—Capt. John Stevens—Shakspeare's Captious—Epitaph on Countess of Pembroke—King Richard III.—Ten Commandments—Comets—Edmund Prideaux—Lost MSS.—Shakspeare's Use of "Strained"—Pilgrim's Road to Canterbury—Solid-footed Pigs—Meaning of Gig—Swearing by Swans—Places called Purgatory—Tu Autem—Thomas May—Pope Joan—Waste Book—Abbot Eustacius—Chiming, &c.

Vols. I. and II., each with very copious Index, may still be had, price 9s. 6d. each.

Notes and Queries may be procured, by order, of all Booksellers and Newsvenders. It is published at noon on Friday, so that our country Subscribers ought not to experience any difficulty in procuring it regularly. Many of the country Booksellers, &c., are, probably, not yet aware of this arrangement, which will enable them to receive Notes and Queries in their Saturday parcels.

All communications for the Editor of Notes and Queries should be addressed to the care of Mr. Bell, No. 186. Fleet Street.

THE QUARTERLY REVIEW, NO. CLXXVI., is just published.

CONTENTS:

John Murray, Albemarle Street.

TO BOOK COLLECTORS, AUCTIONEERS, and DEALERS in SECOND-HAND BOOKS.—The Book containing the MINUTES of VESTRY of the Parish of St. Paul, Covent garden, between the years 1645 and 1681, having been (on examination of the Books, and Documents belonging to the Parish) discovered to be missing, a REWARD of TEN POUNDS will be paid to any Person who shall forthwith cause the said Minute-book to be delivered to Mr. Moseley, Vestry Clerk, 13. Bedford Street, Covent Garden.

This day is published.

SKETCHES OF THE POETICAL LITERATURE OF THE PAST HALF CENTURY. In Six Lectures, delivered at the Edinburgh Philosophical Institution. By D. M. Moir [Delta]. In Fcap. 8vo. (pp. 330.) price 5s.

William Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh and London.

WESTERN LIFE ASSURANCE AND ANNUITY SOCIETY, 3. Parliament Street, London.

VALUABLE NEW PRINCIPLE.

Payment of premiums may be occasionally suspended without forfeiting the policy, on a new and valuable plan, adopted by this society only, as fully detailed in the prospectus.

A. Scratchley, M.A.

Actuary and Secretary; Author of "Industrial Investment and Emigration; being a Second Edition of a Treatise on Benefit Building Societies, &c." Price 10s. 6d.

London: J. W. Parker, West Strand.

FREEMASON'S QUARTERLY MAGAZINE and REVIEW, No. 5, just published, price 3s.

Contents:—Freemasonry during the Great Exhibition—Love's Triumph—The First Offence—On the Tabernacle and Temple—Notes upon Funeral Solemnities—The Condition of Scotch Masonry—"Thinking" and "Working" Freemasons—Masonic Processions—On the Rhine—Correspondence—Obituary: Dr. Crucefix, Peter Thompson. Sir W. Lorraine, T. Pryer, &c.—G. Chapter and G. Lodge Report—The 33rd Degree—The Charities—Metropolitan and Provincial Intelligence—Scotland, Ireland, The Colonies, East Indies, West Indies, America, Switzerland.

R. Spencer, 314. High Holborn; and sold by all Booksellers.

THE EDINBURGH REVIEW, NO. CXC., will be published on TUESDAY next.

CONTENTS:

London: Longman & Co. Edinburgh: A. & C. Black.

JOHN MILLER'S CATALOGUE of BOOKS.—The New Number for APRIL is ready this day, and can be had Gratis, on application. Amongst others, it contains a large Selection of Books on Painting and the Fine Arts, from the Library of the late Sir M. A. Shee, President of the Royal Academy; a few articles from the late Duke of Cambridge's Collection; Works on Political Economy and History; Books of Ballads; the Drama, &c. &c.

John Miller, 43. Chandos Street, Trafalgar Square.

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Just published, in One thick Volume, 8vo. cloth, 12s.

WILLIAM PENN; an Historical Biography, from New Sources. With an extra Chapter on "The Macaulay Charges." By William Hepworth Dixon. With a Portrait.

"Within the compass of an octavo volume Mr. Dixon has compressed a great variety of facts, many original, and all skilfully arranged, so as to produce an authentic moral portrait of his hero. The literary merits of the volume include great research, and a narrative at once consecutive and vivid.... It makes an undeniable exposure of blunders committed by Mr. Macaulay in reference to its hero, which will go far to compromise his character as a historian."—Athenæum.

London: Chapman and Hall, 193. Piccadilly.

THE GENERAL LAND DRAINAGE AND IMPROVEMENT COMPANY.

Incorporated by Act of Parliament, 12 and 13 Vict. c. 91.

This Company is empowered to execute—

1. All works of Drainage (including Outfalls through adjoining Estates), Irrigation, Reclaiming, Enclosing, and otherwise improving Land.

2. To erect Farm Homesteads, and other Buildings necessary for the cultivation of Land.

3. To execute Improvements, under Contract, with Commissioners of Sewers, Local Boards of Health, Corporations, Trustees, and other Public Bodies.

4. To purchase Lands capable of Improvement, and fettered by Restrictions of Entail; and having executed the necessary Works, to resell them with a Title communicated by the Company's Act.

Owners of Entailed Estates, Trustees, Mortgagees, Corporations, Incumbents, Life Tenants, and other Persons having only limited Interests may obtain the use of the Company's Powers to carry out every kind of permanent Improvement, either by the Application of their own or the Company's Funds, secured by a yearly Charge on the Property improved.

Proposals for the Execution of Works to be addressed to

ARNOLD'S SELECT PLAYS OF SOPHOCLES, WITH ENGLISH NOTES.

In 12mo. price 3s.

THE PHILOCTETES of SOPHOCLES, with English Notes, translated from the German of F. W. Schneidewin, by the Rev. R. B. Paul, M.A., and edited by the Rev. T. K. Arnold, M.A. Rector of Lyndon, and late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge.

Rivingtons, St. Paul's Church Yard, and Waterloo Place;

Of whom may be had, uniformly printed and edited,

1. The AJAX of SOPHOCLES, with English Notes. 3s.

THE GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE for April contains, among other articles:—The Character of Charles II. by Peter Cunningham, Esq., F.S.A., being Chapter IV. of the History of Nell Gwyn.—Unpublished Poems of Alex. Gill.—The Dukes of Guise.—Chalcondyles and the English.—Bishop Stanley—Original Letter of Pres. John Adams.—Saint Francis and the Franciscans.—The Bell of Saint Patrick.—Totnes Castle (with a Plate).—Anecdotes of the Protectorate, by Dr. H. Sampson.—Ancient Scottish Seals (with several Engravings).—Mr. Macaulay and Penn.—With Notes of the Month, Review of New Publications, Reports of Antiquarian Societies. Historical Chronicle, and Obituary, including Memoirs of the Marquess of Northampton, Countess of Charleville, Lord Berners, Lord Bexley, Sir F. Lawley, Sir Wm. Owen Barlow, Sir John Tobin, Charles Spence, Esq., Q.C., James Sedgwick, Esq., Joanna Baillie, Rev. A. Brandram, Rev. H. H. Norris, and other eminent persons recently deceased. Price 2s. 6d.

Nichols and Son, 25. Parliament Street.

STOCK of THEOLOGICAL BOOKS of Messrs. Ives and Swan, late of Paternoster-Row; an authentic Portrait of William Huntington; Baily on Annuities, 207 Copies, &c.

PUTTICK AND SIMPSON, Auctioneers of Literary Property, will SELL by AUCTION, at their Great Room, 191. Piccadilly, on SATURDAY, April 12, and Five following Days, Sunday and Good Friday excepted, the Extensive STOCK of THEOLOGICAL BOOKS, Ancient and Modern, mostly in the English Language, including a valuable Collection of the Works of the Puritan Divines, Commentators on the Scriptures, Ecclesiastical Historians, and Miscellaneous Writers. Catalogues will be sent on application.

In the Press, Volumes III. and IV. of

THE JUDGES OF ENGLAND. By Edward Foss, F.S.A. Comprehending the period from Edward I. to Richard III., 1272 to 1485.

Lately published, price 28s.

Volumes I. and II. of the same Work; from the Conquest to the end of Henry III., 1066 to 1272.

"A work in which a subject of great historical importance is treated with the care, diligence, and learning it deserves; in which Mr. Foss has brought to light many points previously unknown, corrected many errors, and shown such ample knowledge of his subject as to conduct it successfully through all the intricacies of a difficult investigation; and such taste and judgment as will enable him to quit, when occasion requires, the dry details of a professional inquiry, and to impart to his work as he proceeds, the grace and dignity of a philosophical history."—Gent. Mag.

London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans.

Second Edition, cloth, 1s.

THE GREEK CHURCH; a Sketch. By the Author of "Proposals for Christian Union."

"Anything written by the Author of 'Proposals for Christian Union' is sure to be distinguished by an excellent spirit. The 'Greek Church,' a Sketch, is well put together; and, though slight, will be found to contain as much real information as many a book of greater size and more pretension."—The Guardian.

By the same, now ready, price 4d.

A SUPPLEMENT ON THE DOCTRINE AND DISCIPLINE OF THE GREEK CHURCH.

"We characterised the interesting little volume entitled 'The Greek Church' as historical rather than doctrinal. The title of this Supplement shows that it expressly supplies the very material in which the original work was deficient."—Notes and Queries.

This Essay and Supplement conclude the Series. The four preceding Essays of Unity on sale. Second Edition, 1s. each.

London: James Darling, Great Queen Street, Lincoln's-Inn-Fields.

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MURRAY'S ENGLISH HANDBOOKS.

I.

Early in April will be published, as a Pocket Volume, 16mo.,

HANDBOOK OF MODERN LONDON; Or, London as it is, in 1851: giving full Descriptions of all Places and Objects of Interest in the Metropolis, including the various

*** The aim of this Work is to describe those Features of the Metropolis best worth seeing, and the way they may be seen to the best advantage, as well as to give some general hints as to Hotels, Lodgings, &c.; in other words, it is intended to make "Murray's Handbook of Modern London" on the plan adopted with so much success in "Murray's Continental Handbooks."

II.

WESTMINSTER ABBEY: Its Art, Architecture, and Associations. By Peter Cunningham, F.S.A. New Edition. 16mo.

III.

THE BRITISH MUSEUM: Its Antiquities and Sculpture. By W. S. W. Vaux, F.S.A. Woodcuts. Post 8vo. (In April.)

IV.

THE GALLERIES OF PICTURES IN AND NEAR LONDON. Including The National Gallery; Windsor Castle; Hampton Court; Dulwich Gallery; Soane's Museum; Barry's Pictures. With Catalogues, and Biographical and Critical Notices. By Mrs. Jameson. Post 8vo. 10s.

V.

HANDBOOK OF LONDON: Past and Present. By Peter Cunningham, F.S.A. Containing full Descriptions of all the

Second Edition, revised. Post 8vo. 16s.

VI.

WINDSOR AND ETON: The Castle, St. George's Chapel, and Eton College. By Edward Jesse. New Edition. 16mo. 1s.

VII.

HANDBOOK OF ENGLAND AND WALES; giving an Account of the Places and Objects in England best worth visiting, or likely to attract the Notice of Intelligent Strangers and passing Travellers; arranged in connexion with the most frequented Roads and Railways in England. With Maps. Post 8vo.

Part I.

The Eastern Counties: Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridge, and Lincoln. (Nearly ready.)

Part VII.

Devon and Cornwall. (Ready.)

VIII.

THE OFFICIAL HANDBOOK; or, A Manual of Political and Historical Reference. Fcap 8vo.

*** This Work shows concisely the Machinery by which the Government of the Country is carried on, including the Duties, Authorities, and Rights of the Queen and Royal Family, and coupling with the Names of all the Chief Functionaries and Heads of Offices, Civil, Military, Judicial, and Ecclesiastical, such a succinct Account of the Departments of each, with their Political Relations, as will, it is hoped, render it useful to all desirous to make themselves acquainted with British Institutions.

JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.

Printed by Thomas Clark Shaw, of No. 8. New Street Square, at No. 5. New Street Square, in the Parish of St. Bride, in the City of London; and published by George Bell, of No. 186. Fleet Street, in the Parish of St. Dunstan in the West, in the City of London, Publisher, at No. 186. Fleet Street aforesaid.—Saturday, April 12. 1851.