I send you this copy from a nibbing of a quaint epitaph, made in the beautiful old church of Lavenham many years since, with a view to putting a Query as to its construction. The first two lines, as I read them, want a verb, unless we read the conclusion of the first line as a verb, to in-brasse (i.e. to record in brass). Can any of your readers give me an authority, from an old author, for the use of this or any similar verb? To in-grain seems somewhat like it, but is modern. If no authority for such a verb can be given, I should be glad to have the construction of the lines explained.

A. B. R.

Belmont.

THE RIGBY CORRESPONDENCE.

St. James's Place,

24th May, 1783.

My dear Lord,

I return you many thanks for your two letters of y^e 10th and 11th inst., and for the trouble you are so obliging as to take on y^e business of the Examiner's Office. I have found a copy of an appointment of an Examiner transmitted to me by Lodge in the year 1762, and I send you Mr. Meredith's appointment upon the stamp'd paper you inclosed to me. If that appointment will not answer, or if the stamp is not a proper one, as you seem to hint may be the case, I must desire you to tell Mr. Perry to make out a proper appointment and send it over ready for my signature. I shou'd hope the one I send herewith will answer, that you may have no further trouble. I perceive five hundred pounds English was y^e sum I receiv'd in 1762; and I imagine that is the sum Mr. Meredith proposes to give now, and to which I give my consent.

I thank you for inquiring after my health; my fits of the gout are not very violent, but I am very glad you never have any of them. Pray make my best comp^ts to Scott, and tell him that I din'd yesterday at Streatham with Macnamara, who is getting better, notwithstanding the weather here is as cold as at Christmas.

I am, my dear Lord, with all possible regard, your most sincere friend and oblig'd humble servant,

Richard Rigby.

Your stamp'd paper was not large enough, but my servant found a stamp'd paper at Lincoln's Inn.

———

St. James's Place,

9th June, 1783.

My dear Lord,

Ten thousand thanks for all the trouble you are so kind (as) to take in my affairs; this day I receiv'd yours of the 31st May, with the bill inclosed for 498l. 2s. 5d. If the instrument I sent over should not be satisfactory, I will sign any new deed which shall be sent me for the purpose.

I have not much acquaintance w^th Lord Northington; but seeing him at St. James's the day he took leave of the King, I wish'd him success in his new government, and took the liberty to mention your name to him as y^e person in the whole kingdom whose advice would be most beneficial to him. I told him I asked no favour of him but one, which was to recollect what I then said to him if he should have occasion to call upon you for advice and assistance hereafter, when he would find it for his great satisfaction to be well founded.

I am, my dear Lord, your most obliged and faithful humble servant,

Richard Rigby.

To the Rt. Honorable Lord Ch. Justice Paterson, at Dublin.

Free, R. Rigby.

THE WANDERING BEE.

This incident of the wandering bee, highly poetical, seems at first sight very improbable, and passes for one of the many strange creations of this wild poem. But yet it is quite true to nature, and was probably suggested to Southey, an omnivorous reader, by some out-of-the-way book of travels.

In Hurton's Voyage to Lapland, vol. ii. p. 251., published a few years since, he says that as he stood on the verge of the North Cape,—

"The only living creature that came near me was a bee, which hummed merrily by. What did the busy insect seek there? Not a blade of grass grew, and the only vegetable matter on this point was a cluster of withered moss at the very edge of the awful precipice, and it I gathered at considerable risk as a memorial of my visit."

So in Fremont's Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, 1842, p. 69., he speaks of standing on the crest of the snow peak, 13,570 feet above the Gulf of Mexico, and adds:

"During our morning's ascent, we had met no sign of animal life, except the small sparrow-like bird already mentioned. A stillness the most profound, and a terrible solitude, forced themselves constantly on the mind as the great features of the place. Here on the summit, where the stillness was absolute, unbroken by any sound, and the solitude complete, we thought ourselves beyond the region of animated life: but while we were sitting on the rock, a solitary bee (Bromus, the humble bee) came winging his flight from the eastern valley, and lit on the knee of one of the men.

"It was a strange place, the icy rock and the highest peak of the Rocky Mountains, for a lover of warm sunshine and flowers; and we pleased ourselves with the idea that he was the first of his species to cross the mountain barrier, a solitary pioneer to foretell the advance of civilisation. I believe that a moment's thought would have made us let him continue his way unharmed, but we carried out the law of this country, where all animated nature seems at war; and seizing him immediately, put him in at least a fit place, in the leaves of a large book, among the flowers we had collected on our way."

A. B.

Philadelphia.

Minor Notes.

Tippet.—The origin of words signifying articles of dress would be a curious subject for investigation. Tippet is derived by Barclay from the Saxon tæppet; but I find the following passage in Captain Erskine's Journal of his recent Cruise in the Western Pacific, p. 36. He is writing of the dress of the women at the village of Feleasan, in the Samoan Islands:

"And occasionally a garment (tiputa) resembling a small poncho, with a slit for the head, hanging so as decently to conceal the bosom."

May we not trace here both the article and the name?

W. T. M.

Ridings and Chaffings.—A singular custom prevails in South Nottinghamshire and North Leicestershire. When a husband, forgetting his solemn vow to love, honour, and keep his wife, has had recourse to physical force and beaten her, the rustics get up what is called "a riding." A cart is drawn through the village, having in it two persons dressed so as to resemble the woman and her master. A dialogue, representing the quarrel, is carried on, and a supposed representation of the beating is inflicted. This performance is always specially enacted before the offender's door.

Another, and perhaps less objectionable, mode of shaming men out of a brutal and an unmanly practice, is to empty a sack of chaff at the offender's door,—an intimation, I suppose, that thrashing has been "done within." Perhaps this latter custom gave rise to the term "chaffing." Thirty years ago both these customs were very common in this locality; but, either from an improved tone of morality, or from the comparative rarity of the offence that led to them, both ridings and chaffings are now of very rare occurrence.

Can any reader of "N. & Q." inform me whether these customs have prevailed, or still prevail, in other counties?

Thomas R. Potter.

Wymeswold, Leicestershire.

Henry of Huntingdon's "Letter to Walter."—Mr. Forester (Bohn's Antiquarian Library) decides, in opposition to Wharton and Hardy, that this epistle was written in 1135, during the lifetime of Henry I., and there can be no doubt that the passage he quotes bears him out in this; but it is not less certain that, whether owing to the death of the friend to whom the letter was addressed, or from a wholesome fear of the resentment of that king who is so roughly handled in it, the publication was deferred long enough for the author to reinforce by a few "modern instances" of more recent date, the "wise saws" which are so plentifully diffused through it: for instance, at p. 313. he mentions the death of Louis VI. of France, which occurred 1st August, 1137, twenty months after the death of Henry. And it is probable that a closer search than I have the means of making, would reveal other instances of a like nature, though this is sufficient by itself.

After all, is it not possible that the worthy archdeacon (like Bolingbroke at a future day) may have antedated his letter to give himself an air of boldness and independence beyond what he really possessed? This would account not only for the references to later occurrences, but for the accurate fulfilment of the prophecy which he quotes about the duration of the reign of Henry I.

J. S. Warden.

Arthuriana.—List of places designated with traditional reference to King Arthur. (To be continued.)

In Cornwall:

King Arthur's Castle. Nutagel.

King Arthur's Hall. An oblong inclosure on the moors, near Camelford.

King Arthur's bed. A slab of granite with pack-shaped piece for bolster, on Trewortha tor.

S. R. Pattison.

Encyclopedia of Indexes, or Tables of Contents.—I should like your opinion, and that of the readers of "N. & Q.," as to the desirableness and practicability of forming a collection of the indexes of those books most commonly required to be referred to by authors and scholars. In reading up on any subject, when it is wished to know whether any author treats upon it, mainly or incidentally, his works must be examined at a great expense of time and labour. Perhaps some of your learned readers will express their views as to the value of such a thesaurus, and give suggestions as to the principles which ought to regulate its execution.

Thinks I to Myself.

Errata in Nichols' "Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica."—Works of this kind, unless strictly accurate, cause great perplexity and confusion, and are indeed of little use. I therefore wish to note in your pages that at vol. viii. p. 38. of the above work it is stated that Babington "married Juliana, daughter of Sir Thomas Rowe, Alderman of London." Harl. MSS. 1174. p. 89., 1551. p. 28., 1096. p. 71., inform us that Julian Rowe, daughter of Sir William Rowe, who was Lord Mayor of London in 1592, married Francis Babington. Sir William and Sir Thomas were first cousins. In the same page Sir Thomas Rowe is stated to have died in 1612; on his tomb we are told that he died in 1570.

Tee Bee.

QUERIES.

GENESIS IV. 7.

Can any of your learned Hebraists elucidate the passage in Gen. iv. 7., which called forth the following remarks from Bishop Sandford?

"As yet I cannot abandon the literal interpretation of the words לַפֶתַח חַטָאת רֹבֵץ‎, and I am much surprised that, in all the criticism bestowed on this verse by Davison and the authors whom he quotes, nothing is said of the word פֶתַח‎. I do not know of any place in Holy Scripture where this word is used figuratively, and unless this can be shown, there is no supporting so strong a metaphor as the advocates of the figurative meaning of the passage contend for. Davison takes no notice of the remainder of the verse.... Now the words are remarkable; they are the same as those in which the Lord declares the subjection of Eve to her husband, Gen. iii. 16. I have always thought this passage (Gen. iv. 7.) to allude to Abel; and to promise to Cain the continuance of the priority of primogeniture, if he were reconciled to God."—Remains of Bishop Sandford, vol. i. p. 135.

With respect to the word פֶתַח‎, the literal interpretation of which is a door, entrance, or gate, Archbishop Magee renders the passage thus: "A sin-offering lieth before or at the door," the word רבֵץ‎ implying to crouch or lie down as an animal; thereby alluding to the sacrifice which was appointed for the remission of sins, and was typical of the great sacrifice of the Lamb of God, who was to be slain for the sin of the world. The whole verse would thus stand, according to Archbishop Magee's interpretation:

"If thou doest well, shalt thou not have the excellency or pre-eminence? and if thou doest not well, a sin-offering lieth before the door [i.e. is prepared, or at hand, for thee]; and unto thee shall be his subjection, and thou shalt rule over him [i.e. over Abel]."

Luther's translation is at variance with this:

"Wenn du fromm bist, so bist du angenehm, bist du aber nicht fromm, so ruhet die Sünde vor der Thür. Aber lass du ihr nicht ihren Willen, sondern herrsche über sie."

In the margin of Luther's Bible is a reference in this verse to Rom. vi. 12., plainly showing that he considered it as an admonition to Cain to struggle against sin, lest it should gain the dominion over him.

Bishop Sandford farther observes:

"I think that neither Davison nor the other commentators have completely examined Gen. iv. 7. in all its expressions and bearings. I am surprised at Magee's omitting the argument from St. Paul's declaration, that by his πλείωνθυσία Abel obtained witness that he was righteous.... I must repeat my wish to have the word פֶתַח‎ well examined."

A. B. C.

P.S.—Dr. Glocester Ridley (quoted by Bishop Van Mildert, in the notes to his Boyle Lectures) takes the view afterwards adopted by Archbishop Magee, as to the meaning of the passage. (See The Christian Passover, in four sermons on the Lord's Supper, by Glocester Ridley, 1742, p. 14.)

ROLAND THE BRAVE.

Can any of your readers and correspondents, versed in "legendary lore," reconcile the two different tales of which "Roland the Brave" is the hero? The one related in Mrs. Hemans's beautiful ballad describes him as reported dead, and that his fair one too rashly took the veil in "Nonnenwerder's cloister pale," just before his return. The story proceeds to tell how in grief her lover sought the battle-field, and finally fell, with other brave companions, at Roncesvalles.

I have been surprised, when perusing Dr. Forbes's highly amusing narrative of his holiday in Switzerland (pp. 28-9.), to find that he identifies Roland with the hero of Schiller's beautiful ballad, who rejoiced in the unromantic appellation of Ritter Toggenburg. That unhappy lover, according to the poet, being rejected by his fair one, who could only bestow on him a sister's affection, sought the Holy Land in despair, and tried to forget his grief; but returning again to breathe the same air with his beloved, and finding her already a professed nun, built himself a hut, whence he could see her at her convent window. Here he watched day by day, as the poet beautifully says; and here he was found, dead, "still in the attitude of the watcher."

Was this Ritter Toggenburg, the hero of Schiller's ballad, the nephew of Charlemagne, Roland, who fell at Roncesvalles? Is not Dr. Forbes in error in ascribing the Ritter's fate to Roland? Are they not two distinct persons? Or is Mrs. Hemans wrong in her version of the story? I only quote from memory:

I shall be glad to have a clear idea of the true Roland and his story.

X. Y. Z.

CLAY TOBACCO-PIPES.

An amusing treatise might be written on the variations in shape of the common tobacco-pipe since its first introduction into the country. Hundreds of specimens of old pipe-heads might soon be procured, and especially in the neighbourhood of London, where the same ground has been tilled for gardening purposes perhaps some hundreds of years, and has received fresh supplies year after year from the ash-bin and dust-heap. I have about a dozen in my possession, which probably belong to various periods from the beginning of the seventeenth to the end of the eighteenth century. The dearness of tobacco in the early times of its use is evinced by the smallness of the bowls, for many of them would hold at most not half a thimbleful of tobacco; while the shank, where it joins the bowl, is nearly double the thickness of that in use at the present day. If I recollect aright, the pipe as represented in Hogarth seems but little larger in the bowl than that in use a century before; the shape being in both the same, very much like that of a barrel. The sides of the bowl seem formerly to have been made of double or treble the thickness of those now in use. This will account for the good preservation in which they may be found after having been in the ground one or two centuries. The clay tobacco-pipe probably attained its present size and slimness, and (very nearly) its present shape, about the beginning of this century. I am well aware that, by many, all this will be esteemed as "in tenui labor," but, for my part, I look upon no reminiscences of the past, however humble, as deserving to be slighted or consigned to oblivion. Even the humble tobacco-pipe may be made the vehicle of some interesting information. Will any of your correspondents favour your other readers with some farther information on this subject?

Henry T. Riley.

Minor Queries.

Cabinet: Sheffield, Earl of Mulgrave, Marquis of Normanby, and Duke of Buckinghamshire.—Can any reader refer me to a letter of the Duke of Buckinghamshire's which I have read (but I entirely forget where), written during the reign of William III., and complaining of his exclusion from the Cabinet? He was either Lord Normanby or Lord Mulgrave when the letter was written.

C. H.

Bersethrigumnue.—In the Escheats, 23 Hen. III. No. 20., quoted by Nichols in his History of Leicestershire (vol. iii. part 1., under "Cotes"), occurs this unusual word. Gilbert de Segrave held the manor of Cotes in socage of the king "by paying yearly one bersethrigumnue." Will any reader of "N. & Q." favour me with its etymology or meaning? I imagine it to have been a clerical error for brachetum cum ligamine, a service by which one of the earlier lords of Cotes held these lands.

Thomas Russell Potter.

Lady Jane Grey.—Neither Nichols in his History of Leicestershire, nor his equally eminent grandson in his interesting Chronicle of Queen Jane, nor, so far as I am aware, any other author, mentions the place where the Lady Jane was buried. The general belief is, I think, that her body was interred with that of her husband in the Tower. But a tradition has just been communicated to me by the Rev. Andrew Bloxam, that the body was privately brought from London by a servant of the family, and deposited in the chapel at Bradgate. What is the fact?

Thomas Russell Potter.

Addison and Watts.—Can any of your numerous readers inform me whether the hymn "When rising from the bed of death," so generally ascribed to Addison, and taken from the chapter on death and judgment in his Evidences of the Christian Religion, is his own composition, or that of the "excellent man in holy orders;" and whether this is Dr. Isaac Watts?

S. M.

Lord Boteloust's Statue by Richard Hayware.—The statue erected to Lord Boteloust by the "Colony and Dominion of Virginia" was "made in London, 1773, by Richard Hayware." I should be obliged for information as to Mr. Hayware.

T. Balch.

Philadelphia.

Celtic in Devon.—When was the Celtic language obsolete in the South Hams of Devon?

G. R. L.

Knobstick.—In these days of strikes, turn-outs, and lock-outs, we hear so much of "knobsticks," that I should like to know why this term has come to be applied to those who work for less than the wages recognised, or under other conditions deemed objectionable by trades unions.

Prestoniensis.

Aristotle.—Where does Aristotle say that a judge is a living law, as the Law itself is a dumb judge?

H. P.

The Passion of our Lord dramatised.—Busby, in his History of Music, vol. i. p. 249., says:

"It has been very generally supposed, that the manner of reciting and singing in the theatres formed the original model of the church service; an idea sanctioned by the fact, that the Passion of our Saviour was dramatised by the early priests."

What authority is there for this statement?

H. P.

Ludwell: Lunsford: Kemp.—Inscription on a tombstone in the graveyard of the old church at Williamsburgh:

"Under this marble lyeth the body of Thomas Ludwell, Esq., Secretary of Virginia, who was born at Burton, in the county of Somerset, in the kingdom of England, and departed this life in the year 1698: and near this place lie the bodies of Richard Kemp, Esq., his predecessor in the secretary's office, and Sir Thomas Lunsford, Knt., in memory of whom this marble is here placed by Philip Ludwell, Esq., son of the said Thomas Ludwell, Esq., in the year 1727."

Information is respectfully asked as to the persons and families mentioned in the foregoing inscription. Sir Thomas Lunsford is said to have come from Surrey, and to have served during the civil wars.

Thomas Balch.

Philadelphia.

Linnæan Medal.—Has any reader of "N. & Q." in his possession a Linnæan medal? I mean the one by the celebrated Liungberger, ordered by Gustavus III. in 1778. It is of great beauty, and now very scarce: the following is a brief description.

It is of silver, two inches diameter. Obverse, a portrait of the naturalist, very faithful and boldly executed, yet with the utmost delicacy of finish. The face is full of thought and feeling, and the whole expression so spiritual, that this medallion has a strange charm; you keep looking at it again and again. The inscription is,

"Car. Linnæus, Arch. Reg. Equ. Auratus."

On the reverse is Cybele, surrounded by animals and plants, holding a key and weeping. Inscription,—

"Deam luctus angit amissi."

"Post Obitum Upsaliæ, D. X. Jan. MDCCLXXVIII. Rege Jubente."

In the background is a bear, on whose back an ape has jumped; but the bear lies quietly, as if he disdained the annoyance.

This was probably in reference to what he said in the preface to his Systema Naturæ: "I have borne the derision of apes in silence," &c. Adjoining this are plants, and we recognise his own favourite flower, the Linnea borealis.

E. F. Woodman.

Lowth of Sawtrey: Robert Eden.—In the Topographer and Genealogist, vol. ii p. 495., I find mention made of a monument at Cretingham in Suffolk, to Margaret, wife of Richard Cornwallis, and daughter of Lowth of Sawtrey, co. Hunts, who died in 1603. The arms are stated to be—"Cornwallis and quarterings impaling Lowth and quarterings, Stearing, Dade, Bacon, Rutter," &c. Will some of your correspondents give me a fuller account of these quarterings, and of the pedigree of Lowth of Sawtrey, or especially of that branch of it from which descended Robert Lowth, Bishop successively of St. David's, Oxford, and London, who was born in 1710, and died in 1787?

I should also be much obliged if any of your readers would give me any information as to who were the parents, and what the pedigree, of the Rev. Robert Eden, Prebendary of Winchester, who married Mary, sister of Bishop Lowth: was he connected with the Auckland family, or with the Suffolk family of Eden, lately mentioned in "N. & Q.?" The arms he bore were the same as those of the former family—Gules, on a chevron between three garbs or, banded vert, as many escallops sable.

R. E. C.

Gentile Names of the Jews.—The Query in Vol. viii., p. 563., as to the Gentile names of the Jews, leads me to inquire why it is that the Jews are so fond of names derived from the animal creation. Lyon or Lyons has probably some allusion to the lion of the tribe of Judah, Hart to the hind of Naphtali, and Wolf to Benjamin; but the German Jewish names of Adler, an eagle, and Finke, a finch, cannot be so accounted for. The German Hirsch is evidently the same name as the English Hart, and the Portuguese names Lopez and Aguilar are Lupus and Aquila, slightly disguised. Is the origin of Mark, a very common Jewish name, to be sought in the Celtic merch, a horse?

Honoré de Mareville.

Guernsey.

The Black Prince.—In Sir S. R. Meyrick's Inquiry into Ancient Armour, vol. ii. p. 18., he quotes Froissart as observing, after his account of the battle of Poictiers, "Thus did Edward the Black Prince, now doubly dyed black by the terror of his arms." I have sought in vain for this passage, or anything resembling it, in Johnes's translation, nor can I find anywhere this appellation as applied by Froissart to his favourite hero. Can the passage be an interpolation of Lord Berners?

J. S. Warden.

Maid of Orleans.—Can any one of your correspondents tell who was D'Israeli's authority for the following?—

"Of the Maid of Orleans I have somewhere read, that a bundle of faggots was substituted for her, when she was supposed to have been burnt by the Duke of Bedford."—Curiosities of Literature, vol. i. p. 312.

J. R. R.

Fawell Arms and Crest.—Could any correspondent tell me the correct arms and crest of Fawell? In Burke's General Armory they are given: "Or, a cross moline gu., a chief dig." And in Berry's Encyclopædia Heraldica: "Sa., a cheveron between three escallop shells argent." In neither work is a crest registered, and yet I believe there is one belonging to the family.

Cid.

"Had I met thee in thy beauty."—Can you or any of your correspondents inform me who is the author of the poem commencing, with the above line, and where it may be found? It is generally supposed to be Lord Byron's, but cannot be found in any of his published works.

E. H.

Portrait of D. P. Tremesin.—Has there ever been any portrait known to exist of one Dompe Peter Tremesin, who is supposed to have been the earliest equestrian who performed feats on horseback, and of whom mention is thus made in the Privy Purse Expenses of King Henry VIII., p. 218.:

"Paied to one Dompue Peter Tremesin, that dyd ryde two horses at once, by waye of rewarde, C corons, i.e. 23l. 6s. 8d."

J. W. G. G.

Edition of "Othello."—I shall feel much indebted to Messrs. Collier, Singer, &c. for information relative to an edition of Othello which was shown to me in January, 1837, and had previously belonged to J. W. Cole (Calcraft), Esq., then manager of the Theatre Royal, Dublin. It consisted of the text (sometimes altered, I think) and notes connected exclusively with astrology. There was, if I remember rightly, a frontispiece representing some of the characters, their heads, arms, bodies, and legs being dotted over with stars, as seen in a celestial globe. It was published about the year 1826, and was evidently not the first play of Shakspeare published under similar circumstances; for I recollect that when Brabantio first appears at the window, a note informs the reader that "if he will refer to the diagram of Brabantio in the frontispiece, he will discover, by comparison of the stars in the two diagrams, that Brabantio corresponds with" a character in another play of Shakspeare, the name of which I forget. Mr. Cole is now in London, and connected with one of the leading theatres. I do not know his address.

M. A.

Prospect House, Clerkenwell.—Will any of your correspondents learned in old London topography inform me when the "Prospect House, or Dobney's Bowling Green," Clerkenwell, ceased to be a place of amusement; and where any account is to be found of one Wildman, who is said to have exhibited his bees there in 1772. (Vide Mirror, vol. xxxiv. p. 107.) And in what consisted this exhibition? Also, if any other plate of the Three Hats public-house, Islington, exists than that in the Gentleman's Magazine? Also, if there exists any portrait of Mrs. Sampson, said to have been the first female equestrian performer, and Life of Sampson, who used also to perform at the gardens behind the Three Hats?

J. W. G. G.

Ancient Family of Widderington.—In an old Prayer Book, now before me, I find this entry:—"Ralph Witherington was married to Mary Smith the 13th day of Nov. in the year of our Lord 1703, at seaven o'clock in the morning, Sunday." Then follow the dates of the births of a numerous progeny. Can any of your readers tell me who these parties were, or any particulars about them? The early hour of a winter morning seems strange. Some of the children settled in Dublin, and intermarried with good Irish families; but from the entry in another part of the volume, in an older hand, of "Ralph Witharington of Hauxley, in the parish of Warqurth, in the county of Northumberland," the family appear previously to have lived in England.

I have never been able to find the motto of the Widderingtons. Their arms are, of course, well known, viz., Quarterly, argent and gules, a bend sable; crest, a bull's head: but I have never seen their legend.

W. X.

P. S.—The marriage is not entered in the registers of Warkworth. It may be in some of the records (of the city) of Dublin. I have seen the motto "Veritas Victrix" appended to a coat of arms, in which the Widderington shield had a place; but it was believed to belong to the name of Mallet in one of the quarters.

Value of Money in the Seventeenth Century.—What are the data for comparing the value of money in the seventeenth century with its present value? What may 1000l. in 1640, in 1660, in 1680, be considered equivalent to now?

C. H.

Minor Queries with Answers.

Ruin near St. Asaph, North Wales.—About two miles from St. Asaph, in Flintshire, near to a beautiful trout stream, called, I think, the Elway, stands an old ruin of some ecclesiastical edifice. There is not very much of it now standing, but the form of the windows still exists. I have in vain looked in handbooks of the county for an account of it, but I have seen none that allude to it in any way. It is very secluded, being hidden by trees; and can only be approached by a footpath. In the centre of the edifice, there is a well of most beautiful water, supplied from some hidden spring; and from the bottom of which bubbles of gas are constantly ascending to the surface. The well is divided by a large stone into two parts, one evidently intended for a bath. The peasantry in the neighbourhood call it the Virgin Mary's Well, and ascribe the most astonishing cures to bathing in its waters. I could not, however, find out what it was. Some said it was a nunnery, and that the field adjoining had been a burial-ground; but all seemed remarkably ignorant about it, and seemed rather to avoid speaking about it; but, from what I could gather, there was some wild legend respecting it: but, being unacquainted with the language, I could not learn what it was. I should feed obliged if any of your correspondents could give me a description of it, and any information or legend connected with it. Near to it are the celebrated "Kaffen Rocks," which show undoubted evidence, from the shells and shingle embedded in their strata, of having at some period been submerged; and the caverns which exist in them are very large, and bones of hyenas and other animals are to be found in them. They are, however, very difficult to find without a guide, and there are very few persons in the neighbourhood who seem to know anything about them. They are very well worthy of a visit, and the surrounding scenery is beautiful in the extreme. I shall be happy to put any person in the way of finding them, should a desire be expressed in your pages.

Investigator.

Manchester.

Wafers.—When and where were wafers invented? They were no new discovery when Labat saw some at Genoa in 1706; but from a passage in his Voyages d'Espagne et Italie, published in 1731, it would appear that they were even then unknown in France. A writer in the Quarterly Review says:

"We have in our possession letters with the wafers still adhering, which went from Lisbon to Rome twenty years before that time; and Stolberg observes that there are wafers and wafer-seals in the museum at Portici."

Abhba.

Asgill on Translation to Heaven.—The Irish House of Commons, in 1703, expelled a Mr. Asgill from his seat for his book asserting the possibility of translation to the other world without death. What is the title of his book? and where may I find a copy?

Abhba.

Ancient Custom at Coleshill.—I have somewhere seen it stated, that there is an ancient custom at Coleshill, in Warwickshire, that if the young men of the town can catch a hare, and bring it to the parson of the parish before ten o'clock on Easter Monday, he is bound to give them a calf's head and a hundred eggs for their breakfast, and a groat in money. Can you inform me whether this be the fact? And if so, what is the origin of the custom?

Abhba.

Replies.

THE SONGS OF DEGREES.

(Vol. ix., p. 121.)

Too much pains cannot be expended on the elucidation of the internal structure of the Psalms. In this laudable endeavour, your correspondent T. J. Buckton has, as I conceive, fallen into an error. He assumes that those Psalms which are entitled "Songs of Degrees" were appropriated for the domestic use rather than the public services of the Jews. I cannot consider that the allusions to external objects which he enumerates could affect the argument; for, on the other hand, we find mention of the House of the Lord (cxxii. 1. 9., cxxvii. 1., cxxxii. 3. 7., cxxxiv. 1.); the sanctuary (cxxxiv. 2.); the priests (cxxxii. 9.); and the singers (cxxxiv. 1.), who attended by night as well as by day (1 Chron. ix. 33.): allusions which would sufficiently warrant these Psalms being considered as connected with the temple worship.

The name Shir Hammachaloth, "Song of Ascents," prefixed to these fifteen Psalms, has given rise to much controversy. The different opinions as to the import of this title may be thus stated: 1. The ancients understood it to relate to the steps of the temple: of this supposition I shall speak hereafter. 2. Luther, whom Tholuck is inclined to follow, renders it a song in the higher choir: intimating that they should be sung from an elevated position, or, as Patrick says, "in an elevated voice." 3. Junius and Tremellius would translate it "Song of Excellences," or "Excellent Song." 4. Gesenius with De Wette, considers that this name refers to a particular rhythm, in which the sense ascends in a rhythming gradation; but as this barely appears in one Psalm (cxxi.), the facts will scarcely support the hypothesis. 5. The more modern opinion is, that (notwithstanding four of them being composed by David, and one by Solomon) it signifies "Song of the Ascents" αναβασις or "Pilgrims' Song," being composed for or sung by the people during their journeys to Jerusalem, whether on their return from the Babylonian captivity, or as they statedly repaired to their national solemnities.

The first of these hypotheses, though in least repute, I am inclined to prefer.

The title in Chaldee is "A Song sung upon the Steps of the Abyss;" the Septuagint superscription "Ὠδὴ τῶν ἀναβαθμῶν;" and the Vulgate, carmen graduum, "Song of the Steps." In accordance with which the Jewish writers state, that these Psalms were sung on fifteen steps leading from the Atrium Israelis to the court of the women. In the apocryphal book of the "Birth of Mary," translated by Archbishop Wake, which is to be found in the works of St. Jerome, and which is attributed to St. Matthew, there is an account of a miracle in the early history of the Virgin Mary, in which it is said (ch. iv.):

"2. And there were about the temple, according to the fifteen Psalms of Degrees, fifteen stairs to ascend.

"3. For the temple being built in a mountain, the altar of burnt-offering, which was without, could not be come near but by stairs."

It goes on to state how the infant Mary miraculously walked up these stairs. In the account of the same miracle, in the Protevangelion, ascribed to St. James, it is related (ch. vii.) how the priest—

"5. ... placed her (the infant) upon the third step of the altar."

From this comparison it would appear, that the "stairs about the temple" were synonymous with the "steps of the altar."

I would therefore suggest, for the consideration of those better acquainted with the subject, that these Psalms were adapted to be sung (not on the steps, as some think, but) as a kind of introit while the priests ascended the steps of the altar.

To show their adaptation for this purpose, it may be worth remarking, that they are all, except cxxxii., introits in the first Prayer Book of Edward VI.

J. R. G.

Dublin.

AMERICAN POEMS IMPUTED TO ENGLISH AUTHORS.

(Vol. viii., pp. 71. 183.)

The southern part of the U. S. seems to make as free with the reputations of English authors, as the northern with their copyright. The name of the South Carolina newspaper, which, with so much confirmatory evidence, ascribed The Calm to Shelley, is not given. If it was the Southern Literary Messenger, the editor has been at it again. The following began to appear in the English papers about Christmas last, and is still "going the round:"

"The Sorrows of Werther.—The Southern Literary Messenger (U. S.) for the present month contains, in 'The Editor's Table,' the following comic poem of Thackeray's; written, we are told, 'one morning last spring in the Messenger office,' during a call made by the author:—

'Werther had a love for Charlotte,

Such as words could never utter.

Would you know how first he met her?

She was cutting bread and butter.

'Charlotte was a married lady,

And a moral man was Werther;

And for all the wealth of Indies,

Would do nothing that might hurt her.

'So he sigh'd, and pined, and ogled,

And his passion boil'd and bubbled,

Till he blew his silly brains out,

And no more by them was troubled.

'Charlotte, having seen his body

Borne before her on a shutter,

Like a well-conducted person,

Went on cutting bread and butter.'"

I believe that Mr. Thackeray knows the value of his writings and his time too well to whittle at verses in the Messenger office, and leave his chips on the floor; and that he is too observant of the laws of fair wit to make a falsification and call it a burlesque. The Sorrows of Werther is not so popular as when known here chiefly by a wretched version of a wretched French version, and many who read these stanzas will be satisfied that the last conveys, at worst, a distorted notion of the end of Göthe's story. To prevent this misapprehension, I quote from Mr. Boylan's translation all that is told of Charlotte after Werther's suicide:

"The servant ran for a surgeon, and then went to fetch Albert. Charlotte heard the ringing of the bell; a cold shudder seized her. She wakened her husband, and they both rose. The servant, bathed in tears, faltered forth the dreadful news. Charlotte fell senseless at Albert's feet.

          .          .          .          .          .          .          .

"The steward and his sons followed the corpse to the grave. Albert was unable to accompany them. Charlotte's life was despaired of."

Perhaps "despaired of" is too strong a word for "man fürchtete für Lottens Leben;" but there is no peg on which to hang the poor joke of the last stanza.

H. B. C.

U. U. Club.

"FEATHER IN YOUR CAP."

(Vol. ix., p. 220.)

In reply to Mr. Gatty's question, I beg to state that the Indian wears an eagle's feather for every enemy he has slain. I have seen a boy of fifteen thus decorated, and was assured that it had been lawfully won.

The feather is usually stuck into the hinder part of the turban, or head-dress, and either projects straight out, or hangs down the back. This is exactly the fashion in which the Chinese wear the peacock's feather; and it also is a mark of distinction for warriors, a military institution similar to our knighthood, or, perhaps, what knighthood once was. (See De Guignes and Barrow, &c.) I think M‘Kenzie speaks of the eagle's feather, but cannot quote just now. According to Elphinstone, the "Caufirs of Caubul" (Siah-posh?) stick a long feather in their turbans for every Mussulman they have slain.

The similarity of style in wearing their feathers, and, above all, the coincidence of both being the reward of merit, induces a belief that in times long gone by a relationship may have existed between the Chinese and the American; a belief that is strengthened by other and more curious testimony than even this.

The head-dress, or coronet of upright feathers, to which Mr. Gatty seems to allude, I have never heard of, as associated with warlike deeds. The coronet of feathers, moreover, does not appear to have been peculiar to America. In the Athenæum for 1844 is given the representation of a naval engagement, in which one party of the combatants "wear head-dresses of feathers, such as are described in ancient Hindu records, and such as the Indian Caciques wore when America was discovered by Columbus," &c. (p. 172.). Moreover, "the Lycians had caps adorned with crests, stuck round with feathers," &c. (Meyrick's Ancient Armour, &c., vol. i. p. xviii.) We may suppose this to have resembled the coiffure of the Mexican and other North American tribes.

Mr. Rankin says the Peruvian Incas wore, as a distinction, two plumes on the front of the head, similar to those represented in the portraits of Tamerlane. (See Conquest by the Mogols, &c., p. 175.) I have seen, among the Wyandots of Sandusky, heads which one might suppose had been the originals of the portraits given in his plate: turban made of gaudy-coloured silk, with two short thick feathers stuck upright in front; the one red, the other white tipped with blue, the great desideratum being to have them of different colours, as strongly contrasted as possible.

The Kalmucs, when they celebrate any great festival, always wear coloured owls' feathers in their caps, &c. (See Strahlenburg, 4to., p. 434.) The Dacotas also wear owls' feathers. (See Long's Expedition to Rocky Mountains, vol. i. p. 161.) The Usbeck Tartar chiefs wore (perhaps do wear) plumes of herons' feathers in their turbans; and the herons' plume of the Ottoman sultan is only a remnant of the costume in which their ancestors descended from Central Asia.

A. C. M.

Exeter.

PERSPECTIVE.

(Vol. ix., p. 300.)

Your correspondent Mr. G. T. Hoare is rather bold in describing the case he does as a "very common error;" and I cannot agree with him that the façade of Sennacherib's Palace (Layard's 2nd book on Nineveh) is an instance of the kind. The theory that horizontal lines in the plane of the picture should converge to a point on the horizontal line right and left of the visual ray, is by no means new; in truth, every line according to this view must form the segment of a circle more or less, according to circumstances. Apply this principle to the vertical lines of a tower or lofty building, and every such structure must be represented diminished at the top, the vertical lines converging to a vanishing point in the sky.

Some years since, this theory was brought forward by Mr. Parsey, and the subject fully discussed at scientific meetings. There was much ingenuity in the arguments employed, but the illustrations were so unsatisfactory that the system has never gained ground. The principles of perspective are most ably exemplified in many well-known works, as they set forth very satisfactory modes of delineation. The limits of your periodical prevent a fuller correspondence on this subject, or I think it would not be difficult to satisfy Mr. Hoare that there are great difficulties attending his proposition.

No recent discoveries in the art of perspective have tended to more truthful representations than those produced by the recognised systems usually adopted. The method of showing the internal courts, &c. of large groups of buildings by isometrical perspective, although very useful for developing architects' and engineers' projects, is not a system that will bear the test of close examination.

Benj. Ferrey.

G. T. Hoare is quite right in saying "that every line above or below the line of the horizon, though really parallel to it, apparently approaches it, as it is produced to the right or left." But he seems to forget that the same holds good in the picture as in the original landscape, the part opposite the eye being nearer to it than the margin of the paper. To produce the same effect with converging lines, the drawing must be made to assume the form of a segment of a circle, the eye being placed in the centre.

John P. Stilwell.

Dorking.

I must beg leave to differ most decidedly with Mr. G. T. Hoare on this point. If it is in accordance with the principles of perspective that, supposing the eye and the picture in their true positions in relation to each other and to the objects represented, every line drawn from the eye to any point of a real object will pass through its corresponding point in the picture, then the supposed wall will form the base of a pyramid, of which the eye will be the apex, and the representation of the wall in the picture a section parallel to the base, and consequently mathematically similar to the base itself. It is perfectly true, as Mr. Hoare says, "that every line above or below the line of the horizon, though really parallel to it, apparently approaches it, as it is produced to the right or left." But he forgets that this fact applies to the picture as well as to the object. In fact, the picture is an object, and the parallel lines in it representing the wall must have the same apparent tendency to one another as those in the wall itself.

Ἁλιεύς

Dublin.

I am glad Mr. G. T. Hoare has called attention to the defective state of the art of perspective. His remarks, however, are too narrow. The fact is, that any two parallel straight lines appear to converge at one or both ends, and one or both lines assume a curvilinear shape. For a notable example, the vertical section of the Duke of York's column in Waterloo Place, from all points of view, appears to bulge at the point of sight, and to taper upwards by a curvilinear convergence of the sides.

C. Mansfield Ingleby.

LORD FAIRFAX.

(Vol. ix., p. 10.)

The following is all the information which I have been able to collect respecting the present possessor of the title of Fairfax of Cameron, in answer to the third Query of W. H. M. It gives me pleasure to communicate it.

The Lords Fairfax have been for several generations natives of the United States. The present possessor of the title is not so called, but is known as Mr. Fairfax. He resides at present in Suter County, California. His Christian names are George William.

The gentleman who bore the title at the commencement of the present century, was a zealous member of the republican (now called democratic) party.

The Fairfax family, at one time, owned all that portion of Virginia called the Northern Neck, lying between the Potomac and Rappahannock rivers.

So much for the third Query. I beg leave to add a few remarks suggested by the fifth.

The citizens of the United States are not called subjects of the United States, and for the same reason that your excellent Queen is not called a subject of Great Britain. Native citizens take no oath of citizenship, expressly or impliedly, whatever the latter word may mean. Foreigners, who become naturalised, do not renounce allegiance to the sovereign of Great Britain more "pointedly" than to any other sovereign. Every one renounces his allegiance to the potentate or power under whose sway he was born: the Englishman to the King (or Queen) of Great Britain, the Chinese to the Emperor of China, the Swiss to the republic of Switzerland, and so of others.

W. H. M. says that the existence of the peers of Scotland "is denial of the first proposition in the constitution of" the United States. If W. H. M. will turn to this constitution, he will find that he has confounded the Declaration of Independence with it.

Foreigners, on becoming naturalised, have to renounce their titles of nobility; but I know of nothing to prevent a native American citizen from being called Lord, as well as Mr. or Esq. As above mentioned, a Lord Fairfax was so called twenty-six years after our Independence; and Lord Stirling, who was a Major-General in the American army of the Revolution, was always so styled by his cotemporaries, and addressed by them as "My Lord" and "Your Lordship."

Some farther information upon this subject has been promised to me.

Uneda.

Philadelphia.

If W. H. M. desires particular information concerning the Fairfax family in Virginia, it will give me pleasure to send him Notes from Sparks' Washington, Virginia, its History and Antiquities, &c.; amongst which is a picture of "Greenway Court Manor House." I now give only an extract from Washington to Sir John Sinclair (Sparks, vol. xii. pp. 327, 328.), which answers in part W. H. M.'s third Query:

"Within full view of Mount Vernon, separated therefrom by water only, is one of the most beautiful seats on the river for sale, but of greater magnitude than you seem to have contemplated. It is called Belvoir, and belonged to George Wm Fairfax; who, were he now living, would be Baron of Cameron, as his younger brother in this country (George Wm. dying without issue) at present is, though he does not take upon himself the title. This seat was the residence of the above-named gentleman before he went to England ... At present it belongs to Thomas Fairfax, son of Bryan Fairfax: the gentleman who will not, as I said before, take upon himself the title of Baron of Cameron."

T. Balch.

Philadelphia.

I cannot but deem your correspondents W. W. and H. G. in error when they consider that the name of Baron Fairfax ought not to be retained in the Peerage. The able heraldic editors of the Peerages are likely to be better versed in such matters than to have perpetrated and perpetuated so frequently the blunder; or what is to be said of Sir Bernard Burke's elevation to be a king of arms? Not to omit the instance of the Earl of Athlone, who, though a natural-born subject of a foreign realm, in 1795 took his seat in the House of Lords in Ireland (a case which H. G. wants explained), we have a more recent instance in the case of the present King of Hanover, a foreign potentate, who is Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale by inheritance, in our peerage, and whose coronation oath (of allegiance?) must be quite incompatible with the condition of a subject in another state. I confess I should like to see this explained, as well as the position of those (amongst whom, however, Lord Fairfax now ranks) who, while strictly mere subjects and citizens of their own state, may have had conferred upon themselves, or inherit, titles of dignity and privilege in a foreign one. We usually (as in the case of the Rothschilds, &c.) acknowledge their highest title in address, but without any adjective or epithets to qualify with honor, such as "honorable;" as is the case, too, with doctors of foreign universities, whose title from courtesy we also admit, though this does not place them on a footing with those of England. The present Duke of Wellington and the Earl Nelson inherit, I believe, titles of dignity in foreign lands, though natural-born subjects of this realm; and there can hardly be a doubt that Lord Fairfax inherits correctly his British barony, though, whenever he may exercise for the first time a legal vote, he may have to exhibit proof of his being the very heir and person qualified, merely because born and resident in a foreign state; the same as would in such case doubtless occur with regard to the other noble persons I have referred to.

A Fairfax Kinsman.

Nantcribba Hall, N.W.

The followings entry in T. Kerslake's catalogue, The Bristol Bibliographer, seems worth notice:

"Burrough's (Jer.) Gospel Remission. True blessedness consists in pardon of sin, 1668, 4to., with autograph of Thos. Lord Fairfax, 1668, and several MS.^[2] notes by him, 12s. 6d."

E. M.

Hastings.