S. G. C.

Greenock Fair.—A very curious custom existed in this town, and in the neighbouring town of Port-Glasgow, within forty years; it has now entirely disappeared. I cannot but look upon it as a last remnant of the troublous times when arms were in all hands, and property liable to be openly and forcibly seized by bands of armed men. This custom was, that the whole trades of the town, in the dresses of their guilds, with flags and music, each man armed, made a grand rendezvous at the place where the fair was to be held, and with drawn swords and array of guns and pistols, surrounded the booths, and greeted the baillie's announcement by tuck of drum, "that Greenock fair was open," by a tremendous shout, and a straggling fire from every serviceable barrel in the crowd, and retired, bands playing and flags flying, &c., home. Does any such wappenschau occur in England on such occasions now?

C. D. Lamont.

Greenock.

Dragons' Blood.—A peculiar custom exists amongst a class, with whom unfortunately the schoolmaster has not yet come very much in contact, when supposed to be deserted or slighted by a lover, of procuring dragons' blood; which being carefully wrapped in paper, is thrown on the fire, and the following lines said:

B. J. S.

Charm for the Ague.—

"Cut a few hairs from the cross marked on a donkey's shoulders. Enclose these hairs in a small bag, and wear it on your breast, next to the skin. If you keep your purpose secret, a speedy cure will be the result."

The foregoing charm was told to me a short time since by the agent of a large landed proprietor in a fen county. My informant gravely added, that he had known numerous instances of this charm being practised, and that in every case a cure had been effected. From my own knowledge, I can speak of another charm for the ague, in which the fen people put great faith, viz. a spider, covered with dough, and taken as a pill.

Cuthert Bede, B.A.

PSALMS FOR THE CHIEF MUSICIAN—HEBREW MUSIC.

The words למנצח בנגינות‎, at the head of Psalms iv., liv., lv., lxvii., and lxxvi., are rendered in the Septuagint and Vulgate εἰς τὸ τέλος, in finem, as if they had read לָנֶצֲח‎, omitting the ם‎ formative. The Syriac and Arabic versions omit this superscription altogether, from ignorance of the musical sense of the words. The Chaldee reads לשבחא על חנגיתא‎, "to be sung on the pipe." The word למנצח‎ is (from נצח‎, to overcome, excel, or accomplish) a performance, and Aquila translates the entire title, τῷ νικοποιῷ ἐν ψαλμοῖς μελώδημα τῷ Δαυιδ; and Jerome, Victori in Canticis, Psalmus David. But Symmachus, ἐπινίκιος διὰ ψαλτηρίων ᾠδή; and Theodotius, εἰς τὸ νῖκος ὕμνοις, who must have read לנצח‎. The best reading is that of the present text, למנצח‎, which Jarchi, Aben Ezra, and Kimchi render chief singer, or leader of the band (=moderatorem chori musici), as appropriate for a psalm to sung and played in divine service. Therefore the proper translation is, "For the leading performer upon the neginoth." The neginoth appear from the Greek translations, δὶα ψαλτηρίων and ἐν ψαλμοῖς (ψάλλειν = playing on strings). and from its root, נגן‎, to strike, to be stringed instruments, struck by the fingers or hand.

The words למנצח אל הנחילות‎ at the head of Psalm v. (for this is the only one so superscribed) should, perhaps, be read with על‎ instead of אל‎ meaning, "For the leading performer on the nehiloth." The nehiloth appear from the root חלל‎, to bore through, and in Piel, to play the flute, to be the same instruments as the ná-y of the Arabs, similar to the English flute, blown, not transversely as the German flute, but at the end, as the oboe. But the Septuagint, Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotius translate ὑπερ τῆς κληρονομούσης: and hence the Vulgate pro ea, quæ hereditatem consequitur; and Jerome, pro hereditatibus. Suidas explains κληρονομοῦσα by ἐκκλησία, which is the sense of the Syriac.

Psalm vi. is headed בנגינות על השמינית‎, and Psalm vi. על שמינית‎, without the "neginoth;" and the "sheminith" is also mentioned (Chron. xv. 21.). The Chaldee and Jarchi translate "Harps of eight strings." The Septuagint, Vulgate, Aquila, and Jerome, ὑπὲρ τῆς ὀγδοής, appear also to have understood an instrument of eight strings.

T. J. Buckton.

Birmingham.

Minor Notes.

"Garble."—Mr. C. Mansfield Ingleby has called attention to a growing corruption in the use of the word "eliminate," and I trust he may be able to check its progress. The word garble has met with very similar usage, but the corrupt meaning is now the only one in which it is ever used, and it would be hopeless to try and restore it to its original sense.

The original sense of "to garble" was a good one, not a bad one; it meant a selection of the good, and a discarding of the bad parts of anything: its present meaning is exactly the reverse of this. By the statute 1 Rich. III. c. 11., it is provided that no bow-staves shall be sold "ungarbled:" that is (as Sir E. Coke explains it), until the good and sufficient be severed from the bad and insufficient. By statute 1 Jac. I. c. 19., a penalty is imposed on the sale of spices and drugs not "garbled;" and an officer called the garbler of spices is authorised to enter shops, and view the spices and drugs, "and to garble and make clean the same." Coke derives the word either from the French garber, to make fine, neat, clean; or from cribler, and that from cribrare, to sift, &c. (4 Inst. 264.)

It is easy to see how the corruption of this word has taken place; but it is not the less curious to compare the opposite meanings given to it at different times.

E. S. T. T.

Deaths in the Society of Friends, 1852-3.—In "N. & Q.," Vol. viii., p. 488., appeared a communication on the great longevity of persons at Cleveland in Yorkshire. I send you for comparison a statement of the deaths in the Society of Friends in Great Britain and Ireland, from the year 1852 to 1853, the accuracy of which may be depended on; from which it appears that one in three have attained from 70 to 100 years, the average being about 74½; and that thirty-seven attain from 80 to 90, and eight from 90 to 100. It would be useful to ascertain to what the longevity of the inhabitants of Cleveland may be attributed, whether to the situation where they reside, or to their social habits.

The total number of the Society was computed to be from 19,000 to 20,000, showing the deaths to be rather more than 1½ per cent. per annum. Great numbers are total abstainers from strong drink.

W. C.

Plymouth.

The Eastern Question.—The following extract from Tatler, No. 155., April 6, 1710, appears remarkable, considering the events of the present day:

"The chief politician of the Bench was a great assertor of paradoxes. He told us, with a seeming concern, 'that by some news he had lately read from Muscovy, it appeared to him there was a storm gathering in the Black Sea, which might in time do hurt to the naval forces of this nation.' To this he added, 'that, for his part, he could not wish to see the Turk driven out of Europe, which he believed could not but be prejudicial to our woollen manufacture.' He then told us, 'that he looked upon those extraordinary revolutions which had lately happened in those parts of the world, to have risen chiefly from two persons who were not much talked of; and those,' says he, 'are Prince Menzicoff and the Duchess of Mirandola.' He backed his assertions with so many broken hints, and such a show of depth and wisdom, that we gave ourselves up to his opinions."

F. B. Relton.

Jonathan Swift, Dean of St. Patrick's, Dublin.—It is remarkable (and yet it has not been noticed, I believe, by his biographers) that Dean Swift was suspended from his degree of B.A. in Trinity College, Dublin, for exciting disturbances within the college, and insulting the junior dean. He and another were sentenced by the Board to ask pardon publicly of the junior dean, on their knees, as having offended more atrociously than the rest. These facts afford the true solution of Swift's animosity towards the University of Dublin, and account for his determination to take the degree of M.A. at Oxford; and the solution receives confirmation from this, that the junior dean, for insulting whom he was punished, was the same Mr. Owen Lloyd (afterwards professor of divinity and Dean of Down) whom Swift has treated with so much severity in his account of Lord Wharton.

Abhba.

English Literature.—Some French writer (Victor Hugo, I believe) has said that English literature consists of four distinct literatures, English, American, Scottish, and Irish, each having a different character. Has this view of our literature been taken, and exhibited in all its aspects, by any English writer and if so, by whom?

J. M.

Oxford.

Irish Legislation.—I have met with the following statement: is it to be received as true? In May, 1784, a bill, intended to limit the privilege of franking, was sent from Ireland for the royal sanction; and in it was a clause enacting that any member who, from illness or other cause, should be unable to write, might authorise some other person to frank for him, provided that on the back of the letter so franked the member gave at the same time, under his hand, a full certificate of his inability to write.

Abhba.

Anecdote of George IV. and the Duke of York.—The following letter was written in a boy's round hand, and sent with some China cups:

Dear Old Mother Batten,

Prepare a junket for us, as Fred. and I are coming this evening. I send you these cups, which we have stolen from the old woman [the queen]. Don't you say anything about it.

George.

The above was found in the bottom of one of the cups, which were sold for five guineas on the death of Mr. Nichols, who married Mother Batten. The cups are now in possession of a Mr. Toby, No. 10. York Buildings, St. Sidwells, Exeter.

Julia R. Bockett.

Southcote Lodge.

Queries.

ANONYMOUS WORKS: "POSTHUMOUS PARODIES," "ADVENTURES IN THE MOON," ETC.

A remote correspondent finds all help to fail him from bibliographers and cotemporary reviewers in giving any clue to the authorship of the works described below. But he has been conversant enough with the "N. & Q." to perceive that no Query, that he is aware, has yet been started in its pages involving a problem, for which somebody among its readers and contributors has not proved a match. Encouraged thereby, he tenders the three following titles, in the full faith that his curiosity, which is pretty strong, will not have been transmitted over the waste of waters but to good result.

1. Posthumous Parodies, and other Pieces, by several of our most celebrated poets, but not before published in any former edition of their works: John Miller, London, 12mo., 1814. This contains some twenty imitations or over, of the more celebrated minor poems, all of a political cast, and breathing strongly the tone of the anti-Jacobin verse; executed for the most part, and several of them in particular, with great felicity. Among that sort of jeux d'esprit they hardly take second place to The Knife Grinder, the mention of which reminds me to add that it is manifest enough, from half-a-dozen places in the volume, that Canning is the "magnus Apollo" of the satirist. The final piece (in which the writer drops his former vein) is written in the spirit of sad earnest, in odd contrast with the preceding facetiæ, and betokening, in some lines, a disappointed man. Yet, strange to tell, through all the range of British criticism of that year, there is an utter unconsciousness of its existence. Whether there be another copy on this side the Atlantic, besides the one which enables me to make these few comments, your correspondent greatly doubts. One living person there is on the other side, it is believed, who could throw light on this question, if these lines should be so fortunate as to meet his eye; since he is referred to, like many others, by initials and terminals, if not in full—Mr. John Wilson Croker.

2. Adventures in the Moon and other Worlds: Longman & Co., sm. 8vo., 1836. Of this work, a friend of the writer (who has but partially read it as yet himself), of keen discernment, says: "It is a work of very marked character. The author is an uncommonly skilful and practical writer, a philosophical thinker, and a scholar familiar with foreign literature and wide reaches of learning. He has great ingenuity and fancy withal; so that he is at the same time exceedingly amusing, and suggestive of weighty and subtle thoughts." This, too, is neglected by all the reviews.

3. Lights, Shadows, and Reflections of Whigs and Tories: Lond. 12mo., 1841. This is a retrospective survey of the several administrations of George III. from 1760 (his accession) to the regency in 1811; evincing much political insight, with some spirited portraits, and indicative both of a close observation of public measures and events, and of personal connexion or intercourse with men in high place. There is a notice of this in the London Spectator of 1841 (May 29th), and in the old Monthly Review; but neither, it is plain, had the author's secret.

Harvardiensis.

Cambridge, Massachusetts, N.E.

P.S.—Two articles of recent time in the London Quarterly Review, the writer would fain trace to their source; "The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey," edited by the Rev. Charles Cuthbert Southey, No. 175. (1851), and "Physiognomy," No. 179. (1852), having three works as the caption of the article, Sir Charles Bell's celebrated work being one.

BLIND MACKEREL.

Can any of your numerous contributors, who may be lovers of ichthyology, inform me whether or not the mackerel is blind when it first arrives on our coasts? I believe it to be blind, and for the following reasons:—A few years ago, while beating up channel early in June, on our homeward-bound voyage from the West Indies, some of the other passengers and myself were endeavouring to kill time by fishing for mackerel, but without success.

When the pilot came on board and saw what we were about, he laughed at us, and said, "Oh, gentlemen, you will not take them with the hook, because the fish is blind." We laughed in our turn, thinking he took us for flat-fish, and wished to amuse himself at our expense. Observing this he said, "I will convince you that it is so," and brought from his boat several mackerel he had taken by net. He then pointed out a film over the eye, which he said prevented the fish seeing when it first made our coast, and explained that this film gradually disappeared, and that towards the middle of June the eye was perfectly clear, and that the fish could then take the bait.

I have watched this fish for some years past, and have invariably observed this film quite over the eye in the early part of the mackerel season, and that it gradually disappears until the eye is left quite clear. This film appears like an ill-cleared piece of calf's-foot jelly spread over the eye, but does not strike you as a natural part of the fish, but rather as something extraneous. I have also remarked that when the fish is boiled, that this patch separates, and then resembles a piece of discoloured white of egg. This film may be observed by any one who takes the trouble of looking at the eye of the mackerel.

I have looked into every book on natural history I could get hold of, and in none is the slightest notice taken of this; therefore I suppose my conclusion as to its blindness is wrong; but I do not consider this to be conclusive, as all we can learn from books is, "Scomber is the mackerel genus, and is too well known to require description." I believe less is known about fish than any other animals; and should you think this question on natural history worthy a place in your "N. & Q.," I will feel obliged by your giving it insertion.

An Odd Fish.

Minor Queries.

Original Words of old Scotch Airs.—Can any one tell me where the original words of many fine old Scotch airs are to be found? The wretched verses of Allan Ramsay, and others of the same school, are adapted to the "Yellow-haired Laddie," "Ettrick Banks," "The Bush aboon Traquair," "Mary Scott," and hundreds of others. There must exist old words to many of these airs, which at least will possess some local characteristics, and be a blessed change from the "nymphs" and "swains," the "Stephens" and "Lythias," which now pollute and degrade them. Any information on this subject will be received most thankfully. I particularly wish to recover some old words to the air of "Mary Scott." The only verse I remember is this,—

L. M. M. R.

Royal Salutes.—When the Queen arrives at any time in Edinburgh after sunset, it has been remarked that the Castle guns are never fired in salute, in consequence, it is said, of the existence of a general order which forbids the firing of salutes after sunset. Is there such an order in existence? I would farther ask why twenty-one was the number fixed for a royal salute?

S.

"The Negro's Complaint."—Who was the author of this short poem, to be found in all the earlier collection of poetry for the use of schools? It begins thus:

Henry Stephens.

"The Cow Doctor."—Who is the author of the following piece?—The Cow Doctor, a Comedy in Three Acts, 1810. Dedicated to the Rev. Thomas Pennington, Rector of Thorley, Herts, and Kingsdown, Kent; author of Continental Excursions, &c.

This satire is addressed to the Friends of Vaccination.^[1]

S. N.

Soomarokoff's "Demetrius."—Who translated the following drama from the Russian?

Demetrius, a Tragedy, 8vo., 1806, translated by Eustaphiere. This piece, which is a translation from a tragedy of Soomarokoff, one of the most eminent dramatic authors of Russia, is said to be the first (and I think it is still the only) Russian drama of which there is an English translation.

S. N.

Polygamy.—1. Do the Jews at present, in any country, practise polygamy? 2. If not, when and why was that practice discontinued among them? 3. Is there any religious sect which forbids polygamy, besides the Christians (and the Jews, if the Jews do forbid it)? 4. Was Polygamy permitted among the early Christians? Paul's direction to Timothy, that a bishop should be "the husband of one wife," seems to show that it was; though I am aware that the phrase has been interpreted otherwise. 5. On what ground has polygamy become forbidden among Christians? I am not aware that it is directly forbidden by Scripture.

Stylites.

Irish, Anglo-Saxon, Longobardic, and Old English Letters.—I would be glad to know the earliest date in which the Irish language has been discovered inscribed on stone or in manuscript; also the earliest date in which the Anglo-Saxon, Longobardic, and Old English letter has been known in England and Ireland.

E. F.

Youghal.

Description of Battles.—Judging from my own experience, historical details of battles are comparatively unintelligible to non-military readers. Now that, unhappily, we shall probably be compelled to "hear of battles," would not some of our enterprising publishers do well to furnish to the readers of history and of the bulletins, a popular "Guide to the Battle Field," drawn up some talented military officer? It must contain demonstratively clear diagrams, and such explanations of all that needs to be known, as an officer would give, on the spot, to his nonprofessional friend. The effects of eminences, rivers, roads, woods, marshes, &c., should be made plain; in short, nothing should be omitted which is necessary to render an account of a battle intelligible to ordinary readers, instead of being, as is too often the case, a mere chaotic assemblage of words.

Thinks I to Myself.

Do Martyrs always feel Pain?—Is it not possible that an exalted state of feeling—approaching perhaps to the mesmeric state—may be attained, which will render the religious or political martyr insensible to pain? It would be agreeable to think that the pangs of martyrdom were ever thus alleviated. It is certainly possible, by a strong mental effort, to keep pain in subjection during a dental operation. A firmly fixed tooth, under a bungling operator, may be wrenched from the jaw without pain to the patient, if he will only determine not to feel. At least, I know of one such case, and that the effort was very exhausting. In the excitement of battle, wounds are often not felt. One would be glad to hope that Joan of Arc was insensible to the flames which consumed her: and that the recovered nerve which enabled Cranmer to submit his right hand to the fire, raised him above suffering.

Alfred Gatty.

Carronade.—What is the derivation of the term carronade, applied to pieces of ordnance shorter and thicker in the chamber than usual? Here the idea is that they took their name from the Carron foundries, where they were cast. In the early years of the old war-time, there were carron pieces or carron guns, and only some considerable time thereafter carronades. How does this stand? and is there any likelihood of the folk story being true?

C. D. Landry.

Greenock.

Darcy, of Platten, co. Meath.—It is on record that, in the year 1486, the citizens of Dublin, encouraged by the Earl of Kildare and the Archbishop, received Lambert Simnel, and actually crowned him King of England and Ireland in Christ's Church; and that to make the solemnity more imposing, they not only borrowed a crown for the occasion from the head of the image of the Virgin that stood in the church dedicated to her service at Dame's Gate, but carried the young impostor on the shoulders of "a monstrous man, one Darcy, of Platten, in the county of Meath."

Did this "monstrous man" leave any descendants? And if so, is there any representative, and where, at the present day? Platten has long since passed into other hands.

Abhba.

Dorset.—In Byrom's MS. Journal, about to be printed for the Chetham Society, I find the following entry:

"May 18, 1725. I found the effect of last night drinking that foolish Dorset, which was pleasant enough, but did not at all agree with me, for it made me very stupid all day."

Query, What is Dorset?

R. P.

"Vanitatem observare."—Can any of your readers explain the following extract from the Council of Ancyra, A.D. 314? I quote from a Latin translation:

"Mulieribus quoque Christianis non liceat in suis lanificiis vanitatem observare: sed Deum invocent adjutorem, qui eis sapientiam texendi donavit."

What is meant by "vanitatem observare?"

R. H. G.

King's Prerogative.—A writer in the Edinburgh Review, vol. lxxiv. p. 77., asserts, on the authority of Blackstone (but he does not refer to the volume and page of the Commentaries, and I have in vain sought for the passages), that it is to this day a branch of the king's prerogative, at the death of every bishop, to have his kennel of hounds, or a compensation in lieu of it. Does the writer mean, and is it the fact, that if a bishop die without having a kennel of hounds, his executors are to pay the king a compensation in lieu thereof? And if it is, what is the amount of that compensation? Is it merely nominal? I can understand the king claiming a bishop's kennel of hounds or compensation in feudal times, when bishops were hunters (vide Raine's Auckland Castle, a work of great merit, and abounding with much curious information); but to say, to this day it is a branch of the king's prerogative, is an insult alike to our bishops and to religious practices in the nineteenth century. Of hunting bishops in feudal times, I beg to refer your readers, in addition to Mr. Raine's work, to an article in the fifty-eighth volume of the Quarterly Review, p. 433., for an extract from a letter of Peter of Blois to Walter, Bishop of Rochester, who at the age of eighty was a great hunter. Peter was shocked at his lordship's indulgence in so unclerical a sport. It is obvious neither Peter nor the Pope could have heard of the hunting Bishops of Durham.

Fra. Mewburn.

Quotations in Cowper.—Can any of your correspondents indicate the sources of the following quotations, which occur in Cowper's Letters (Hayley's Life and Letters of Cowper, 4 vols., 1812)? In vol. iii. p. 278. the following verses, referring to the Atonement, are cited:

In vol. iv. p. 240. it is stated that Twining applied to Pope's translation of Homer the Latin verse—

L.

Cawley the Regicide.—Mr. Waylen, in his History of Marlborough, just published, shows that Cawley of Chichester, the regicide, has in Burke's Commoners been confounded with Cawley of Burderop, in Wiltshire; and he adds, "the fact that a son of the real regicide (the Rev. John Cawley) became a rector of the neighbouring parish of Didcot," &c. has helped to confound the families. May I ask what is the authority for stating that the Rev. J. Cawley was a son of the regicide?

C. T. R.

Minor Queries with Answers.

Dr. John Pocklington.—Can any of your correspondents oblige me with information respecting the family, or the armorial bearings of Dr. John Pocklington? He wrote Altare Christianum and Sunday no Sabbath. The parliament deprived him of his dignities A.D. 1640; and he died Nov. 14, 1642. Dr. Pocklington descended from Ralph Pocklington, who, with his brother Roger, followed Margaret of Anjou after the battle of Wakefield, A.D. 1460. He is said to have settled in the west, where he lived to have three sons. The family is mentioned in connexion with the county of York, as early as A.D. 1253.

X. Y. Z.

Last Marquis of Annandale.—1. When and where did he die? 2. Any particulars regarding his history? 3. When and why was Lochwood, the family residence, abandoned? 4. How many marquisses were there, and were any of them men of any note in their day and generation?

Annandale.

Heralds' College.—Richard III. incorporated the College of Arms in 1483, and that body consisted of three kings of arms, six heralds, and four pursuivants. Can you inform me of the names of these first members of that Heraldic body?

Escutcheon.

—— Vicarage.

Teddy the Tiler.—Who was Teddy the Tiler?

W. P. E.

Duchess of Mazarin's Monument.—I read yesterday, in an interesting French work, that the beautiful Hortense Mancini, a niece of Mazarin, and sister to Mary Mancini, the early love of Louis XIV., after various peregrinations, died at Chelsea, in England, on July 2, 1699. Although not an important question, I think I may venture to ask whether any monument or memorial of this remarkable beauty exists at Chelsea, or in its neighbourhood?

W. Robson.

Halcyon Days.—What is the derivation of "halcyon days?"

W. P. E.