Vol. IV.—No. 88. NOTES AND QUERIES: A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION FOR LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC.

OUR FOURTH VOLUME.

We cannot permit the present Number, which commences the Fourth Volume of "NOTES AND QUERIES," to come into the hands of our Readers without some few words of acknowledgment and thanks to those Friends, Readers, and Correspondents, whose kind encouragement and assistance have raised our paper to its present high position;—

To those thanks we will add our promise, that no effort shall be wanting to carry on this paper in the same spirit in which it was commenced, and to add, if possible, to its utility and interest. And by way of setting an example to our correspondents—

we will, with these thanks and this promise, bid our friends fall to on the Banquet of Pleasant Inventions spread out for them in the following pages.

Notes.

THE DUKE OF MONMOUTH'S POCKET-BOOKS.

"The papers and books that were found on him are since delivered to his Majesty. One of the books was a manuscript of spells, charms, and conjurations, songs, receipts, and prayers, all written with the said late Duke's own hand. Two others were manuscripts of fortification and the military art. And a fourth book, fairly written, wherein are computes of the yearly expense of his Majesty's navy and land forces."

This poem immediately follows the one in which Toddington in Bedfordshire (which the Duke spells, probably as then pronounced, Tedington) is referred to.

17. Prayers after the confession of sins, and the sense of pardon obtained.—pp. 108-125.

These prayers breathe a spirit of the most humble and ardent piety; and if composed by the Duke himself, exhibit the weakness of his character in a more favourable light than the remainder of the volume. One paragraph is striking:—

"Mercy, mercy, good Lord! I aske not of thee any longer the things of this world; neither power, nor honours, nor riches, nor pleasures. No, my God, dispose of them to whom thou pleasest, so that thou givest me mercy."

18. "The Batteryes that can be made at Flushing to keep ships from coming in."—pp. 127, 128.

19. "Traité de la guere ou Politique militaire."—pp. 130-132.

20. "The Rode that is to be taken from Bruxels to Diren, the Pri. of Orange's house."—p. 133.

21. "The Road from Bruxells to Sousdyck, the Prince of Orange his hous."—p. 134.

22. "The way that I tooke from Diren, when I went for England, Nov. the 10. 84."—p. 135.

23. "The way that I took when I came from England, December the 10th. 84."—p. 137.

24. "The way that I took the first day of Jan. n. st. [1684-5] from Bruxells to the Hague."—p. 139.

25. Similar memoranda from 11th to 14th March, 1685, between Antwerp and Dort.—p. 141.

26. The addresses of various persons in Holland, London, Paris, and elsewhere, to whom letters were to be written, 1685.—pp. 142. 147-155.

27. "The footway from Trogou to Amsterdam."—p. 143.

28. An obscure memorandum, as follows:—"1683. Munday the 5th of November. H. W. had T.—The 9th of November, Poupe.—The 16th of November, Poupe."—p. 156.

29. Value of duckatons, pistols, and gilders.—Ib.

30. Note of the route from London to Tedington.—p. 157.

Although this volume is not of the same historical value as the Diary mentioned by Welwood, yet it is a curious and interesting relic of the unfortunate man who possessed it, and whose want of education, superstition, and frivolity are so prominently displayed in its pages. As to its recent history, Dr. Anster states that it was purchased at a book-stall in Paris, in 1827, by an Irish divinity student; the same, probably, who has written his name at p. 90.: "John Barrette, Irish College, Paris, Dec. 31, 1837."—The same person has made a memorandum in pencil, at p. 1., which has subsequently been partially rubbed out, and, as far as now legible, is as follows:—

"This Book was found in ... of the English College in Paris, among other MSS. deposited there by James II."

An earlier hand has scribbled a list of the contents at the commencement, with the signature "S. Rutter." If King James deposited this volume in the College at Paris, in all probability the others found on the person of the Duke of Monmouth accompanied it, and may one day or other turn up as unexpectedly as the present book has done.

F. MADDEN.

British Museum, June 27.

FOLK LORE.

Stanton Drew and its Tradition.

DAVID STEVENS.

Godalming, May 10. 1851.

Minor Notes.

The Hon. Spencer Perceval.

—Being on a tour through the West of England some years ago, I found myself one morning rapidly advancing up the river Tamar, in the gig of "the Captain of the Ordinary" at Plymouth. We were bound for the noble ruins of Trematon Castle, in the area of which a good modern house has been erected, and in one of the towers is arranged a very pleasing collection of antiquities.

As we proceeded up the river, the gallant captain related the following anecdote in reference to the then proprietor of Trematon:—

It is well known that in the afternoon of the 12th May, 1812, the Hon. Spencer Perceval, the then prime minister, fell by the hand of Bellingham in the lobby of the House of Commons; the cause assigned by the murderer being the neglect of, or refusal to discharge a supposed claim he had upon the government.

On the same night the gentleman above alluded to, and residing at Trematon, had the tragic scene so minutely and painfully depicted in his sleep, that he could not resist the desire of sending the particulars to a friend in town, which he did by the up mail, which departed a few hours after he had risen on the following morning.

He informed his friend that his topographical knowledge of London was very meagre; and that as to the House of Commons (the old one), he had seen only the exterior: he went on to state, that, dreaming he was in town, he had a desire to hear the debates in Parliament, and for this purpose enquired his way to the lobby of the House, the architectural peculiarities of which he minutely described; he gave an exact description of the few officials and others in the room, and especially of a tall, thin man, who seemed to watch the opening of the door as any one entered with wild and restless gaze: at length Mr. Perceval arrived, whose person (although unknown to him) and dress he described, as also the manner in which the horrid deed was done: he further communicated the words uttered by the victim to the effect "the villain has murdered—;" how the wounded man was treated, and the person of the medical man who was on the instant called in.

These, with other particulars, which have escaped my memory, were thus recorded, and the first newspaper he received confirmed the accuracy of this extraordinary dream.

M. W. B.

An Adventurer in 1632.

—I transcribe from a manuscript letter now before me, dated "Tuesday, Whitsun-week, 1632," the following passage. Can you or any of your correspondents give me (or tell me where I am likely to find) any further information of the adventurer there named?

"Heer is much Speach of the Brauery of a Porter yt hath taken a Braue House, and hath his Coach & 4 Horses. Ye Lord Mayor examined him how he gott yt Wealth: he answered nothing. Then ye Lords of ye Council gott out of him, that he being the Pope's Brother Borne in Essex, Goodman Linges Sonnes, was maintained by him, and tempted much to have come over to him: these 2 Brothers beings Ship Boyes to a French pirate, the porter gott meanes to come againe into England, but ye other being a Witty Boy was sould to a Coortier in Paris, who trauelling to Florence, thear bestowed his Boy of a Great Man, who when he dyed tooke such affection to this Boy, yt changeing his name to his owne left his estate to him: and so in time grew a Florentine, a Cardinall, & now Pope, ye greatest linguist for the Latine yt ever was."

C. DE D.

[Maffeo Barberini (Urban VIII.) was the Roman pontiff between 1623 and 1644, and is said to have been born at Florence in 1568, of a noble family. He was a good classical scholar, and no mean Latin poet. One charge brought against him was his weak partiality towards his nephews, who abused his old age and credulity. It is probable some of our correspondents can throw some light on this mysterious document.]

Almanacs.

—A friend of mine, in taking down his old rectory house last year, found under one of the floors a book almanac, of which the following is the title given:

"A Prognossicacion and an Almanac fastened together, declaring the Dispocission of the People, and also of the Wether, with certaine Electyons and Tymes chosen both for Phisicke and Surgerye, and for the Husbandman. And also for Hawekying, Huntying, Fyshing, and Foulyinge, according to the Science of Astronomy, made for the yeare of our Lord God M. D. L. calculed for the Merydyan of Yorke, and practiced by Anthony Askam."

At the end of the Almanac:

Then follows the "Prognossicacion," the title-page to which is as follows:

"A Prognossicacion for the yere of our Lord M.CCCCCL., calculed upon the Meridiane of the Towne of Anwarpe and the Country thereabout, by Master Peter of Moorbecke, Doctoure in Physicke of ye same Towne, whereunto is added the Judgment of M. Cornelius Schute, Doctor in Physicke of the Towne of Bruges in Flanders, upon and concerning the Disposicion, Estate, and Condicion of certaine Prynces, Contreys, and Regions for thys present yere, gathered oute of hys Prognostication for the same yere. Translated out of Dutch into Englyshe by William Harrys."

At the end—

"Imprynted at London by John Daye, dwellynge over Aldersgate and Wylliam Seres, dwellyng in Peter Colledge. These Bokes are to be sold at the Newe Shop by the lytle Conduyte in Chepesyde."

The print is old English. Mr. Francis Moore and the Almanacs have figured in your recent Numbers, and I have thought that a brief notice of an almanac three hundred years old might not be unacceptable to your "NOTES AND QUERIES" friends.

D.

Exeter, June 18. 1851.

Queries.

GHOST STORIES.

From some recent experiments of the Baron von Reichenbach, it seems probable that wherever chemical action is going on light is evolved, though it is only by persons possessing peculiar (though not very rare) powers of sight, and by them only under peculiar circumstances, that it can be seen. It occurred to him that such persons might perhaps see light over graves in which dead bodies were undergoing decomposition. He says:

"The desire to inflict a mortal wound on the monster, superstition, which, from a similar origin, a few centuries ago, inflicted on European society so vast an amount of misery; and by whose influence, not hundreds, but thousands of innocent persons died in tortures on the rack and at the stake;—this desire made me wish to make the experiment, if possible, of bringing a highly sensitive person, by night, to a churchyard."—§ 158. Gregory's Translation, p. 126.

The experiment succeeded. Light "was chiefly seen over all new graves; while there was no appearance of it over very old ones." The fact was confirmed in subsequent experiments by five other sensitive persons, and I have no design of questioning it. My doubt is only how far we can consider the knowledge of it as giving a "mortal wound" to superstition. "Thousands of ghost stories," the Baron tells us, "will now receive a natural explanation, and will thus cease to be marvellous;" and he afterwards says, "Thus I have, I trust, succeeded in tearing down one of the densest veils of darkened ignorance and human error." I repeat that I do not question the fact; my Query is, where to find the "thousands of ghost stories" which are explained by it; and as I suspect that you have some correspondents capable of giving information on such subjects, I shall feel much obliged if they will tell me.

S. R. MAITLAND.

Gloucester.

A BOOK WANTED OF ENZINAS.—FRANCISCO DE ENZINAS, OR DRYANDER, TRANSLATOR OF THE SPANISH NEW TESTAMENT, 1543.

Can any obliging reader of the "NOTES AND QUERIES" inform me of the existence, in any of our public libraries, or for sale, of the following book: Dryandri (Franciscus) Flandriæ propriæ incarcerationis et liberationis Historia: Antwerpiæ(?) 1545. Sm. 8vo.? Fox, the martyrologist, writing of Dryander, says:

"I read the book in the shop of John Oporine, printer, of Basil."

I have a French translation of it, and a Spanish version is sanctioned by Pellicea (after Gerdes), under this title: Breve Descripcion del Pais Baxo, y razon de la Religion en España, en 8vo.; but in such a manner as leaves it questionable. If a Spanish version is known, I should esteem it a favour to be informed where it can now be found.

Enzinas passed part of the years 1542-3 with Melancthon at Wittemberg. Having completed his New Testament, he returned early in the latter year to Antwerp to get it printed. After much reflection and advice with his friends, he made an agreement with Stephen Mierdmann of Antwerp, in the following manner:

"Nothing relating to it was done in secret; everybody knew that the New Testament was being printed in Spanish. Many praised the project; many waited for it with eagerness; my rooms were never closed, every one who wished came in and out: and yet I doubt not that some who came and beforehand praised my book, when they were behind my back, and with their own parties, sung another song; well perceiving that the reading of the Scriptures by the people is not very likely to profit their avaricious stomachs. I care little, however, for such opinions and selfish passions, confiding in God alone, who directed and would protect an undertaking devoted solely to His own glory."

It were too long for the "NOTES AND QUERIES" to tell how he was induced to cancel the first leaf of his New Testament after it was printed, because it had one word which savoured of Lutheranism; of his presenting the finished volume to the Emperor Charles V. at Brussels; how he received him, and what he said of his being entrapped by his confessor, and cast into prison for fifteen months, escaping and being let down by a rope over the city wall, until he found repose and security again at Wittemberg with Melancthon.

Few of the early translations of the New Testament into the vulgar languages of Europe are so little known as the Spanish of Francisco de Enzinas, or Dryander; and yet, perhaps, of no one of them are there such minute particulars of the printing and publication to be found upon record as that published by him in 1543, and of his imprisonment in consequence of it.

BENJAMIN B. WIFFEN.

Mount Pleasant, near Woburn.

SALTING THE BODIES OF THE DEAD.

Every reader of Ariosto, of Boiardo, or of Berri, is acquainted with the character of Turpin, as an historian. John Turpin's History of the Life of Charles the Great and Roland has long since been regarded as a collection of fables; as a romance written under a feigned name. Its real character is, however, best described by Ferrario, when he says that it is not to be considered as "the mere invention of any one impostor, but rather as a compilation of ancient tales and ballads that had been circulating amongst the people from the ninth century." (Storia ed Analisi degli Antichi Romanzi di Cavalleria, vol. i. pp. 21, 22.) In such a work we must not calculate upon meeting with facts, but we may hope to be able to obtain an insight into ancient practices, and an acquaintance with ancient customs. It is for this reason I would desire to draw the attention of the reader to a curious mode of preserving the bodies of the dead, stated by Turpin. He says that the Christians, being without a sufficient supply of aromatic drugs wherewith to embalm the dead, disembowelled them, and filled them up with salt. The passage thus stands in the original:

"Tunc defunctorum corpora amici eorum diversis aromatibus condiverunt; alii myrrha, alii balsamo, alii sale diligentes perfuderunt: multi corpora per ventrem findebant et stercora ejiciebant, et sale, alia aromata non habentes, condiebant."—C. 27.

Does any other author but Turpin mention this mode of "salting," or rather of "pickling" the dead? This is the Query which I put, in the expectation of having it answered in the affirmative, as I am quite certain I have met with another author—although I cannot cite his name—who mentions the body of a Duke of Gloucester being thus preserved with salt; but unfortunately I have not taken a note of the author, and can only thus vaguely refer to the fact.

W. B. MACCABE.

Minor Queries.

The Star in the East (St. Matt. ii. 2.).

—I have been told that in the year of the Nativity three of the planets were in conjunction. Some one of your astronomical correspondents may probably be able to furnish information on this subject: it is full of sacred interest and wonder.

J. W. H.

Meaning of Sinage: Distord: Slander.

—In a translation of Luther's Revelation of Antichrist by the Protestant martyr Frith, the word sinage occurs in a list of ecclesiastical payments, which the popish prelates were wont to exact from the parochial clergy.

If any of your correspondents can say what sinage means, he may oblige me still further by explaining the word distord, in the same page; where it is said "they stir princes and officers to distord against them," viz., against such as resist the claims of churchmen.

Is there any authority for supposing that sclawnder, ordinarily slander, may sometimes mean injury, without reference to character? It is certain that the parallel term calumnia was so used in monkish Latin.

H. W.

Miss.

Again, was the term, when used with especial reference to these ladies, always spelt with one s, as Mis?

M. S.

Jacques Mabiotte.

—I read, that certain members of the continental masonic lodges interpret the Hiram, whose death the freemasons affect to deplore, as meaning Molai, Grand Master of the Templars; but that others understand the said Hiram to mean Jacques Mabiotte. Now, I should think the person whom secret associations can be even imagined, ever so falsely, to keep in continual remembrance, and who is thus placed in competition with the Grand Master of the Temple, should at least enjoy that moderate share of celebrity that will enable some of your correspondents to inform me who he was, and what were the circumstances of his death. I have not myself been able to find him.

A. N.

Registry of British Subjects abroad.

—There is a notion that all British subjects born in foreign parts are considered as born within the diocese of London. What is the origin of this notion? I have heard it said that it is founded on some order made by King George I., on the occasion of his journeys to Hanover. But it must be of older date.

Can any of your readers throw any light upon this? and greatly oblige,

J. B.

[A notice was published in the London Gazette in March, 1816, stating that the Bishop of London's registrar would register all marriages of British subjects solemnised in foreign countries; and also the births and deaths of British subjects which occurred abroad. Has that notice any reference to the notion?]

Shawls.

—When were shawls first introduced into this country from the East? and whence has the name arisen? for I see no trace of it in our English dictionaries. Is it from its Persian name, "do-shâllâ?" I should also much wish to know when plaids and tartans were first mentioned as part of the national dress of Scotland.

A JUROR.

"Racked by pain, by shame confounded."

—From whence are the following lines taken?

Y. G. F.

Oxford, June 17. 1850.

Figures of Saints.

—During some slight repairs in my parish church, vestiges of mural paintings were discovered above and on each side of the chancel arch. I caused the plaster and whitewash to be removed, and discovered two colossal angelic figures, but in a very imperfect state. Each have nimbi of a blue colour, surmounted by crosses, with globular extremities.

The S. figure holds an enormous spear. The N. one is so much defaced that nothing could be traced but the outline of the figure, and what appears a gigantic serpent, or perhaps a scroll of a blue colour behind it. The clerk reports that traces of an anchor could be seen ten years ago; but on his statement I cannot place much reliance. I should be obliged for any information respecting the subject. Above the centre of the arch I could only see a profusion of fragments of wings surrounded by a glory.

E. S. TAYLOR.

Martham, Norfolk, June 7.

Conceyted Letters, who wrote?—

"Conceyted Letters, newly laid open: or a most excellent bundle of new wit, wherein is knit up together all the perfection or art of episteling, by which the most ignorant may with much modestie talke and argue with the best learned." London: B. Alsop, 1618.

Who is the author of this little work? Lowndes gives it as an anonymous production, but it is sometimes ascribed to Nicolas Breton. The initials I. M. affixed to the preface, would rather denote Jervase Markham as the author.

Δ.

Acta Sanctorum.

—Is any endeavour being made for the completion of that vast work, the Acta Sanctorum, the last volume of which I believe was published at Brussels in 1845?

P. S. E.

Pope's "honest Factor."

—I shall be obliged if any of your readers can inform me who was the "honest factor" referred to in Pope's "Sir Balaam" in the lines: