"They mourn Quebec; for Wolfe our sorrows flow;
Victors and vanquish'd felt the twofold blow.
To both perpetual let each loss remain;
If Quebec be restored, Wolfe fell in vain."
E. H. A.
You have lately published some inquiries relative to Wolfe's early career. Is the following fact worth stating? Tradition points to an old house, once an inn, at the back of the Town-hall at Devizes, where the young officer resided while enlisting soldiers into his regiment.
WILTONIENSIS.
This writer will be one instance of the use of such an organ of inquiry as "N. & Q." MR. CORNEY'S reply to my Query reminds me of Wilson's History of Navigation, with which I have long been acquainted: but I had quite forgotten, or perhaps never remarked, that this Wilson was James, and M.D. Baron Maseres reprinted the History of Navigation in the fourth volume of the Scriptores Logarithmici: it is an elaborate summary, of wide research, and puts the author's learning and judgment beyond a doubt. Maseres, in his Preface, gives a mention of Wilson, and, in addition to the facts now brought out, states, in his own curiously explicit style, that Dr. Pemberton's Epistola ad Amicum J. W. de Cotesii inventis, "was addressed to this Dr. James Wilson, who was the person meant by the word Amicum, with the two letters J. W., which were the initial letters of his name." I happen to possess Brook Taylor's copy of this Epistola (4to. 1722), and its Supplement (4to. 1723), in which Taylor has written, "E libris Br. Taylor, ex dono eximii paris amicorum, autoris D. H. Pemberton atque editoris D. J. Wilson." Thus it is established that the author of the dissertation on the fluxional controversy appended to Robins's tracts, lived in friendship with some of the most distinguished parties to that quarrel. It is also established that he was fully conversant with the mathematics of the day; for Pemberton's letter, called out by Wilson's own queries, could have been read by none but a previous reader of Cotes and the highest fluxionists. As to Wilson's age, he says (Robins's Math. Tr., vol. ii. p. 299.) he was a fellow-student of Pemberton at Paris: the latter was born in 1694, and the former was probably of nearly the same age. They were close friends to the end of their lives, and Wilson published Pemberton's Course of Chemistry, delivered at Gresham College, 8vo. 1771, according to Hutton and Watt. These last-named authorities both attribute to Pemberton himself the dissertation on the fluxional controversy in Robins's Tracts: but it certainly has Wilson's name to it; or rather, it is said to be by the publisher (which we now call editor) of the volumes. It is very likely that Pemberton gave help: assuredly he must have been consulted by his intimate friend on facts the truth of which was within his own knowledge. Accordingly, the following assertions, made by Wilson, are not to be lightly passed over: first (which also Robins assumes again and again), that Newton wrote the anonymous account of the Commercium Epistolicum (Phil. Trans., No. 342.) usually attributed to Keill, which, in Latin, forms the Preface to the second edition of that work. Secondly, that Newton wrote the criticism on John Bernoulli's letter at the end of the second edition. Thirdly, that Newton himself, and not Pemberton, omitted the celebrated Scholium from the third edition of the Principia. Montucla, in the second edition (1802, vol. iii. p. 108) of his History of Mathematics, gives statements on these points from a private source, to the effect that the notes of the original edition of the Comm. Epist. were Newton's, and that the informant had seen the matter which was substituted for the Scholium, in Newton's handwriting, among the proof-sheets preserved by Pemberton. If Wilson were the informant, which may have been, for Montucla's first edition was published in 1758, Montucla must have confounded the two editions of the Comm. Epist. If not, it must have been some one who did not draw his account from the dissertation, in which there is nothing about the proof-sheets. Montucla, however, has lowered the credit of his informant by making him assert that the second edition of the Principia was managed by Cotes and Bentley, without communication with Newton. This, which all the world knows to be untrue of the book, is true of the prefatory parts; and Wilson gives an account of Newton's dissatisfaction with those parts. If Wilson were the informant, Montucla has again misunderstood him.
A. DE MORGAN.
B. B. may see, in the British Museum library, a tract of four leaves only, the title of which I will transcribe:
"London's Wonder. Being a most true and positive relation of the taking and killing of a great Whale neer to Greenwich; the said Whale being fifty-eight foot in length, twelve foot high, fourteen foot broad, and two foot between the eyes. At whose death was used Harping-irons, Spits, Swords, Guns, Bills, Axes, and Hatchets, and all kind of sharp Instruments to kill her: and at last two Anchors being struck fast into her body, she could not remoove them, but the blood gush'd out of her body, as the water does out of a pump. The report of which Whale hath caused many hundred of people both by land and water to go and see her: the said Whale being slaine hard by Greenwich upon the third day of June this present yere 1658, which is largely exprest in this following discourse. London, printed for Francis Grove, neere the Sarazen's head on Snowhill, 1658."
Surely after reading the above, your sceptical correspondent can no longer hesitate to accept as a matter of veritable fact this story so very like a whale.
Evelyn, who lived near Greenwich, and was most probably one of the wonder-struck spectators of the huge monster of the deep which had been so rash as to visit our shores, notes in his Diary under the above-mentioned date—
"A large whale was taken betwixt my land butting on the Thames and Greenwich, which drew an infinite concourse to see it by water, horse, coach, and on foote, from London and all parts. It appear'd first below Greenwich at low water, for at high water it would have destroyed all ye boates; but lying now in shallow water encompass'd with boates, after a long conflict it was kill'd with a harping yron, struck in ye head, out of which spouted blood and water by two tunnells, and after an horrid grone it ran quite on shore and died. Its length was 58 foote, height 16; black skin'd like coach leather, very small eyes, greate tail, onely 2 small finns, a picked snout, and a mouth so wide that divers men might have stood upright in it: no teeth, but suck'd the slime onely as thro' a grate of that bone which we call whale-bone; the throate yet so narrow as would not have admitted the least of fishes. The extreames of the cetaceous bones hang downewards from the upper jaw, and was hairy towards the ends and bottom within side: all of it prodigious, but in nothing more wonderfull then that an animal of so greate a bulk should be nourished onely by slime thro' those grates."
Having disposed of this matter, I shall now turn my attention to the great storm that immediately preceded the death of that "arch rebell Oliver Cromwell, cal'd Protector," which, be it remembered, took place on Friday the 3rd of September, 1658.
"Toss'd in a furious hurricane,
Did Oliver give up his reign."
So saith the witty author of Hudibras; and to these lines his editor, Grey, adds the note—
"At Oliver's death was a most furious tempest, such as had not been known in the memory of man, or hardly ever recorded to have been in this nation. (See Echard's History of England, vol. ii.) Though most of our historians mention the hurricane at his death, yet few take notice of the storm in the northern counties on that day the House of Peers ordered the digging up his carcase with other regicides. (See Mercurius Publicus, No. 51. p. 816.)"
Cotemporaneous proof of the occurrence is afforded by S. Carrington in prose, and by Edmund Waller in verse.
"Nature itself," says Carrington, "did witness her grief some two or three days before by an extraordinary tempest and violent gust of weather, insomuch that it might have been supposed that herself had been ready to dissolve ... all which is so lively set forth by the quaintest wit of these times (E. Waller), who expresseth it more elegantly and copiously than my rough prose can possibly reach to."
"Upon the late Storm, and his Highness' Death ensuing the same.[6]
"We must resign; Heaven his great soul doth claim
In storms as loud as his immortal fame.
His dying groans, his last breath shakes our isle,
And trees uncut fall for his funeral pile;
About his palace their broad roots were tost
Into the air—so Romulus was lost.
New Rome in such a tempest mist their King,
And from obeying fell to worshipping.
"Nature herself took notice of his death,
And sighing swell'd the sea with such a breath,
That to remotest shores her billows rould,
The approaching fate of their great Ruler told."
[6] Vide Three Poems upon the Death of his late Highnesse Oliver, Lord Protector, written by Waller, Dryden, and Sprat. 4to. London, 1659.
The ensuing night, Carrington adds, was serene and peaceful. (See his Life of Cromwell, 1659, p. 223.) Ludlow, in his Memoirs, also notices the storm. On the afternoon of Monday, August 30, he set out for London. He says:
"On the Monday afternoon I set forward on my journey (from Essex); the morning proving so tempestuous that the horses were not able to draw against it; so that I could reach no further than Epping that night. By this means I arrived not at Westminster till Tuesday about noon."
A. GRAYAN.
O. C. D. has avowed himself incredulous as to the reality of the reported remarkable ages of the old Countess of Desmond, Jenkins, Parr, &c., and he suggests that there should be unquestionable evidence of such extraordinary deviations from the usual course of human life before we credit them. I confess myself of the same way of thinking; and perhaps my doubts have been strengthened from the circumstance, that, although the longevity of members of the Society of Friends is well known at the insurance offices, I do not recollect an instance of any one attaining one hundred years in the United Kingdom. Upwards of ninety is not uncommon, from eighty to ninety common; and more than one-third of the whole deaths are from seventy upwards. There was a well-authenticated instance of a "Friend" in Virginia, named William Porter, who attained one hundred and seven years, who could hoe Indian corn a year previous to his death; but it was considered a rare occurrence in America.
As some of the readers of "N. & Q." may be curious in such matters, the following is an accurate statement of the ages at the time of death of members of the Society of Friends in the past two years. The extra number of females arises from the greater number of males who leave the society, or are excommunicated or emigrate. The average duration of life in these two years appears about 52 years 6 months 4 days. The number of members in the society in the United Kingdom is computed at 19,000 or 20,000. In America they are far more numerous.
| Deaths in the Society of Friends in 1849-1850, 1850-51. | |||
| Males. | Females. | ||
| Under | 5 Years | 33 | 27 |
| From | 5 to 10 | 5 | 13 |
| " | 10-15 | 1 | 3 |
| " | 15-20 | 11 | 11 |
| " | 20-30 | 21 | 16 |
| " | 30-40 | 16 | 24 |
| " | 40-50 | 18 | 24 |
| " | 50-60 | 31 | 38 |
| " | 60-70 | 44 | 54 |
| " | 70-80 | 64 | 84 |
| " | 80-90 | 38 | 37 |
| " | 90 upwards | 4 | 7 |
| —— | —— | ||
| 286 | 338 | ||
A MEMBER OF THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS.
I noticed, within the last week, the following inscription on a tombstone in Conway churchyard:
"Also, Here Lieth the Body of
Lowry Owens, the wife of
William Vaughan, who
died May the 1st, 1766,
aged 192."
The round of the "9" was above the line; the figures were in their natural places, and had evidently not been altered; but as the inscription was remarkably clear for its age, the only explanation that occurred to me was that it had been recut by some ignorant person, when nearly defaced. Immediately above it was the following, referring, I presume, to her husband:
"Here Lyeth ye Body of
William Vaughan, who
Dyed ye 16 day of A Pril,
1735, aged 72."
If so, and the age of Mrs. Vaughan be correct as stated, she must have been nearly a hundred or so when married. Can any of your correspondents living in the neighbourhood explain how the mistake arose?
AGMOND.
59. Catherine Street, Liverpool.
—Precision is of great importance in investigating the meaning of our ancient technical terms.
Haberdascher was, I apprehend, the generic name of dealers in small wares. Hats and caps were formerley called hures and howves or houfes; and when haberdashers dealt in such articles they were pro tanto hurrers. But as early as the time of Edward I. there were traders called hatters, who were not haberdashers; and at a later period, when the term hurrer was obsolete, there were "haberdashers of hats." In the reign of Edw. IV. a curious petition was presented to Parliament, which is not unworthy of being put upon your Notes. It sets forth—
"That whereas huers, bonnets, and cappes, as well single as double, were wont to be truly made, wrought, fulled, and thickked by the might and strength of men, that is to say, with hand and foot; and they that have so made, wrought, fulled, and thickked such huers, bonnets, and cappes, have well and honestly afore this gotten their living thereby, and thereupon kept apprentices, servants, and good household. It is so that there is a subtile mean found now of late, by reason of a Fullyng Mille, whereby more cappes may be fulled and thickked in one day than by the might and strength of four score men by hand and foot may be fulled and thickked in the same day: the which huers, bonnets, and cappes, so fulled and thickked by such mill, are bruised, broken, and deceivably wrought, and cannot by the mean of any mill be truly made."
The petitioners conclude by praying Parliament to impose heavy penalties upon all who use the fulling mill, or who sell huers, hats, or bonnets that have been "fulled or thickked" by means of any such mill. So early did the antagonism between hand-labour and machinery prevail.
I doubt whether the more ancient name of haberdasher were milainer. There were haberdashers at York in the time of Edward III., but no milliners. In 1372 the haberdashers of London were separated from the hurrers, with whom they had been previously associated. I should be glad to have a reference to the use of the term milainer, as applied to traders of any sort prior to the reign of Edward III.
I should also be obliged to any of your correspondents who will tell me what was the description of trade or business carried on by uphalders in former times.
Δ.
—In Halliwell's Archaic Dictionary the word balk is interpreted, "a ridge of greensward left by the plough in ploughing, or by design, between the different occupancies in a common field." This is exactly the meaning of the word as it is commonly used in Yorkshire at this day; but in a Yorkshire village with which I am acquainted, we have the very phrase of the Golden Legend, "cou-bache," (pronounced skoo-bauk, the prefix s being a not infrequent corruption), as the name of a wide grassy road between thorn-hedges, upon the verbage of which the milch cows of the villages are pastured. This seems to be just the sort of place described in the legend as the scene of Kenelm's murder. I need not add, that it is not unusual to find pure Anglo-Saxon words retained in the rural dialects of Yorkshire.
Δ.
—Having some reason to doubt the high editorial authority attributed to M. Barrière by J. R. (Cork), I would request your ingenious correspondent to favour us with references to one or two (or more, if not too troublesome) of the "frequent cases" in which the Quarterly Review adopts M. Barrière's statements.
The filthy espièglerie related by that very suspicious authority St. Simon, of the Duchess of Burgundy, already sufficiently incredible, is rendered impossible in J. R.'s version of "administered to herself." St. Simon supposes no such legerdemain.
The Groom of the Stole is the first lord of the King's bed-chamber; under a Queen the equivalent office and title is Mistress of the Robes.
C.
—In one of your early Numbers I have seen some Queries respecting the phrase "Grinning like a Cheshire Cat." I remember to have heard many years ago, that it owes its origin to the unhappy attempts of a sign painter of that county to represent a lion rampant, which was the crest of an influential family, on the sign-boards of many of the inns. The resemblance of these lions to cats caused them to be generally called by the more ignoble name. A similar case is to be found in the village of Charlton, between Pewsey and Devizes, Wiltshire. A public-house by the roadside is commonly known by the name of The Cat at Charlton. The sign of the house was originally a lion or tiger, or some such animal, the crest of the family of, I believe, Sir Edward Poore.
H.
—I am now able to answer a Query which I lately sent to you. David Mallet died in George Street, Hanover Square, and was buried in the burial-ground of Grosvenor Chapel, South Audley Street.
Can any of your readers tell me when and where Mrs. Mallet, his widow, died? Who was T. C., the writer of a letter in the Gentlemen's Magazine, vol. lxii. pt. 1. p. 100.
F.
—MR. J. H. PARKER, in his Query respecting old town-halls, mentions the Town-hall of Weobly, in Herefordshire, as an early example of timber-work. Similar examples exist at Hereford, Ross, Ledbury, and Leominster, in the same country. These buildings are all constructed upon the same plan, viz. a large oblong room supported on wooden pillars; so that there is an open covered space beneath, which is used for the purposes of a market. With respect to the age of these buildings I can give no information; but something might doubtless be determined, partly by records, and partly by the internal evidence of the style of construction.
L.
In reply to MR. J. H. PARKER'S Query about Town-halls, I beg to say that in Leicester there are still standing a Guildhall (part of which is undoubtedly of a date as early as the middle of the fourteenth century) and a County Hall, called "The Castle," similar to the old building at Oakham. The foundation-walls of the latter are parts of the original fabric, and one of the windows is clearly of the Transition period.
JAYTEE.
—On reading this you may exclaim, "Quæ regio in terris nostri non plena laboris." Before this note reaches you, I may have been anticipated; but I will venture it, if only to show that your delightful publication extends its charms even to the "benighted."
I wish to inform C. O. S. M., in furtherance of his Query, that Whiting's watch is included in Thorpe's (178. Piccadilly) Catalogue for 1843, No. 689, and is there given as from the collection of the late Duke of Sussex, who obtained it from the Rev. John Bowen.
B. C.
Madras, March 13.
is fully discussed by DR. ROCK at the end of a small work entitled Did the Early Church in Ireland acknowledge the Pope's Supremacy? Perhaps CEYREP may think his question met by the authorities set forth in the above-named book.
BRITO.
—I am much obliged by the answer to part of my Query; but I should be very glad to know the name of the lady Thomas, second brother of the Marquis of Dorset, married, and who was mother by him of Margaret, wife of John Astley,[7] Master of the Jewels to Queen Elizabeth.
[7] Query, not Ashley.
C. DE D.
—W. B. inquires whether Sir Edward Bagshaw, of Finglas, left other children besides two daughters; which two he describes as married to Ryves and Burroughs respectively? and whether Castle-Bagshaw, in the co. Cavan, took its name from this branch of the family, with any other information concerning this Sir Edward?
I have looked into my Cavan MS. Collections, and I find from them that Sir Edward Bagshaw had been, so far as I can at present see, an adventurer of Cromwell's introduction, debentured on lands of Cavan, viz. Callaghan, Tirgromley, Derrychill, Timhowragh, and seventeen other denominations, which were thereupon erected into the manor of Castlebagshaw, and whereon he built a castle: such I suppose the origin of the manor and castle. It is more certain, and indeed on proof before me, that he had one daughter named Anne, and married before 1654 to Thomas Richardson, of Dublin, Esq., who, having paid 600l. to Sir Edward, he, for that consideration, and for the marriage, granted all the premises to Richardson in fee, who assigned them in 1661 to four different persons. One of these assignees was Ambrose Bedell, a son of the celebrated William Bedell, Bishop of Kilmore and Ardagh. Sir Edward Bagshaw died about 1661, possibly just previous to this partition. His latter days were I think passed at Finglas, in the description of which locality, in my History of the Co. Dublin, I find this apposite notice (p. 371.): "Under the communion table are flat tombstones of very ancient date, to the families of Bagshaw and Ryves;" but their position precluded my decyphering their evidence. Of the family of Bagshaw I have in my Genealogical Collections various notices, as well in this country as in Derbyshire and Staffordshire.
JOHN D'ALTON.
48. Sumner Hill, Dublin.
—Dissen interprets the λευκαὶ φρένες of Pindar (Part IV. 194.), pale with envy, envious; alii aliter. Whatever be the exact meaning of this debated phrase, the idea at the ground of it appears the same as that in the modern "white liver." According to Homer, it will be remembered, φρένες ἦπαρ ἔχουσιν. (Od. ix. 301.)
A. A. D.
[SIGMA refers our correspondent to Ryan's Medical Jurisprudence, and Elliotson's Physiology, for a medical explanation of the phrase—not quite suited to our pages.—ED.]
—Miniatures of Oliver Cromwell do not appear to be very rare. At least, in addition to those which have been noted in your columns, I may state that I picked up at Stockholm, a few years ago, a very well-executed miniature of the Regicide, which was in all probability brought to Sweden by his ambassador Whitlock. The miniature is very small, is protected by a thick glass, and is framed in an ornamented, richly gilt, copper frame. It is, I think, painted in ivory, and is backed by a gilt copper plate, on which is engraved, in characters apparently of the period, "Ol, Cromwáll, Anno 1684." The accent over the á renders it probable that setting and inscription are foreign. The painting itself gives the features of Cromwell very exactly, and represents him in plain armour, with a plain falling collar round the neck, and long flowing hair.
G. J. R. G.
—I have just found a passage in Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy which proves that R. C. H. was correct in the remarks he made on these words, viz. that they ought to have been printed sleek-stone, and that they were the name of an instrument used for smoothing or polishing, and not for sharpening:
"The ebon stone which goldsmiths use to sleeken their gold with, born about or given to drink, hath the same properties, or not much unlike."
Lady Macbeth says:
"Come on;
Gentle my lord, sleek o'er your rugged looks;
Be bright and jovial 'mong your guests to-night."
C. FORBES.
Temple.
Slick or sleek stones are used by curriers to remove wrinkles and other irregularities in, and to smoothen the surface of hides and skins, after they have been converted into leather by the tanner. The stone which is considered to be the best for this purpose is quarried in the neighbourhood of Kendal.
The currier's sleek stone is an oblong square plate, measuring six inches in length by four inches in breadth, and half an inch in thickness. One of the longer edges of the stone is fixed into a groove in a wooden handle or stock, and hence it is also commonly called a stock stone.
The leather being spread out upon a table, the stock is held in both hands, and the opposite edge of the stone is pressed upon and rubbed over the surface of the leather. In a subsequent part of the process of currying the workman uses, in like manner, a slicker or sleeker made of steel, and finishes his work with a glass sleeker.
J. L. C.
—The weight of this "ponderous tenor bell" is not mentioned; but there does not seem to be any particular "obscurity," whatever there may be of strangeness in the alleged mode of its transit by water. By the terms "mill-cog" of the poetaster is doubtless to be understood the cog-wheel of the miller, viz. that which more or less directly connects the motive agent with the shaft carrying the stones. Persons who happen to have noticed the large size and ponderous construction of the main cog-wheel in many an ancient flourmill will easily imagine that if set afloat it would carry a great weight; especially if prepared, as a missionary to the Hudson's Bay territories told me a small cart-wheel was rigged to transport him over the rivers, viz. by stretching a large skin over its area. It was, in all likelihood, to some contrivance of this kind that John de Dandelion and his dog have become so picturesquely and permanently connected with the history of Margate in "traditionary rhyme."
D.
—The following has been printed in the late John Dunkin's History of Dartford; but as topographical works have but a limited circulation, and the above-named author was fond of printing but few impressions of his works, I have taken the liberty of forwarding the lines to you:
"Sutton[8] for mutton,
Kirby[9] for beef,
South Darne[10] for gingerbread,
Dartford[11] for a thief."
All four of the parishes are situate upon the river Darent, and adjoin.
[8] Sutton at Hone—fine pastures.
[9] Horton Kirby, the same.
[10] South Darenth, celebrated for its old church, and (probably when the lines were composed) for its baker.
[11] Dartford: the bridewell of the district was formerly in this parish, in Lowfield Street.
Αλφρεδ.
—Though not a lawyer, I venture to express the opinion that, if preferred, burial may take place in unconsecrated ground. The law exacts the registering of the death, and inhibits a clergyman from officiating except within the consecrated boundary. Indeed the burying-ground of dissenters is not consecrated according to law, although it may have to be licensed. But, supposing a person to have the fancy to lie "in some loved spot, far away from other graves," there seems to be no legal difficulty. In the shrubbery of Brush House, the residence of my friend and neighbour John Booth, Esq., M.D., there is a mausoleum over the remains of his uncle, from whom he inherited the property.
"Here," says Hunter, in his History of Hallamshire, "Mr. Booth spent the latter part of an active life in mathematical and philosophical studies; and, indulging a natural (?) and patriarchal desire, prepared his own sepulchre amidst the shades his own hand had formed, in which his remains are now reposing."
Was not Mrs. Van Butchell preserved many years after death in a glass case by her husband?
—The lines on English History, beginning
"William the Norman conquers England's State," &c.
were not from the pen of any Catholic gentleman of the name of Chaloner, but were composed by a Protestant. Some of the lines were subsequently altered by a Catholic lady, the late Mrs. Cholmely, of Brandsby Hall, near York, and I believe the whole verses were printed at her private expense. The line on Mary of England was, in the original, anything but complimentary to the memory of that queen. Mrs. Cholmely's daughter, the late Mrs. Charlton, of Hesleyside in Northumberland, had the verses printed again at Newcastle, about twenty-five years ago. I have no doubt that I could procure a copy for AN ENGLISH MOTHER.
EDWARD CHARLTON.
Newcastle-on-Tyne.
—In the fifth chapter of the most remarkable Saga of Thorfinn Karlsefne, we find some curious customs to have been prevalent in Greenland relative to the burial of the dead in unconsecrated ground. Thorstein Erikson, the second husband of Gudrida, died of a sore sickness. Many of the household had previously been carried off by the same malady, and the ghost of each corpse joined its fellows in tormenting and terrifying the survivors. The night after Thorstein's death, his corpse rose up in the bed and called for Gudrid his wife. With reluctance and terror the widow approached the body of her husband.—
"Now when Gudrid arose and went to Thorstein, it seemed to her as though he wept. And he whispered some words to her which none could hear, but these other words he spoke in a loud voice, so that all were aware thereof. 'They that keep the truth shall be saved, but many here in Greenland hold badly to this command. For it is no Christian way as here is practised, since the universal faith was brought to Greenland, to lay a corpse in unblessed earth, and to sing but little over it. It had been the custom in Greenland, after Christianity was brought in, that the dead should be buried on the lands where they died, in unhallowed earth, and that a stake should be set up over the breast of the dead (skyldi setja staur upp af brjosti hinum dauda); and when the priest afterwards came, the stake was pulled up, and holy water was poured into the hole, and they sang over the body even though it was long after.' And Thornstein's body was carried to the church in Eriksfiord, and there it was sung over by the priests (yfirsöngvar af Kennimönnum.")
May not this custom, which prevailed in Greenland in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, have been derived from the Scandinavian north, and there have been applied to the suicide buried in the cross road? Was the idea of burying these outcasts in such a place, the hopeful one of placing them at least under the shadow as it were of the cross, though they were denied a resting-place in consecrated ground. That the old Northerns regarded suicide with horror, we know from the "Eyrbiggia Saga," p. 530. of Mr. Blackwell's edition of Mallet's Northern Antiquities.
EDWARD CHARLTON.
Newcastle-on-Tyne.
—In old almanacks the sun is represented by a man's face inclosed in a ring, from which externally points or rays, indicating flames, appear to proceed. An Oldham recruit, billeted at the sign of the Sun, in writing home to his friends, described the sign as "th' mon's face set a' round we skivers.[12]"
[12] Skivers, skewers or pins.
ROBERT RAWLINSON.
—I have before me an English version of this most singular writer, by J. S., printed by J. Streater, London, 1658, 1 vol. folio, pp. 342. The marvellous description of the sea serpent by Olaus Magnus is well known, but during the controversy recently raised as to the reappearance of this monster to the officers of the Dædalus, the following testimony to its existence in later times was perhaps overlooked. It is extracted from the notes of Frederick Faber, the celebrated Iceland ornithologist, describing a zoological expedition to the islands in the Cattegat, and published in Oken's Isis for 1829, p. 885.:
"As I was returning in a boat from Endelave to Horsens, the old helmsman, observing that I took great interest in natural history, asked me if I had ever seen the sea serpent. On my replying in the negative, he told me that about two years ago, while he and his companion were fishing near Thunoe, they observed the head of a large creature lying quite on the surface of the water, and in close proximity to their boat. The head was like that of a seal, though they immediately perceived that it belonged to no animal of that kind. A gull flew towards the monster, and made a pounce upon him, when the huge creature raised its body at least three fathoms high into the air, and made a snap at the bird, which flew away in terror. They had time, before it disappeared, to notice that the monster had a red throat, and that its body was about twice the thickness of a boat's mast."
EDWARD CHARLTON.
—The word is French: coucher par écrit. Ménage says, coucher, in its common sense, is derived from collocare in Latin, of which he gives instances as early as Catullus; he might have gone back to Terence. Hence, says he, "coucher bien par écrit, pour dire écrire avec ordre:" and quotes Salmasius, to show that coucher par écrit answered to digerere, in the sense of writing a digest.
The sense is the same as our expression "lay down," "lay down the law," &c., but we do not confine that to writing.
It is always a boon to historical literature when a man of learning and industry devotes himself to a monograph of any particular person or period. When we saw, therefore, in the Gentleman's Magazine, the able and interesting papers by Mr. Cunningham, on the history of one who, whatever might have been her life, so died, that Tennison did not hesitate to preach her funeral sermon, we felt sure that those papers could never be allowed to remain the "sole property" of the readers and admirers of our good friend Sylvanus Urban; and we have proved right in our anticipation. The Story of Nell Gwyn, and the Sayings of Charles II., related and collected by Peter Cunningham, which has just been issued, consists of a reprint of those papers, greatly enlarged and increased in value by the information which has reached the author since they appeared in their original form. We know of no volume of the same extent calculated to give a more graphic or faithful picture of the heartlessness and depravity of the age of profligacy in which his heroine lived, an age which furnishes a striking proof how true it is that individuals, communities, and even whole nations, will after a time seek compensation for a state of gloomy and unchristian fanaticism in one of unbridled licentiousness.
Mr. Cunningham has, in this handsomely illustrated volume, treated a subject which required very nice handling with great tact; and his book deserves to be placed on the shelves with Pepys and Evelyn, as a necessary supplement to them. Can we give it higher praise? Its quaint and characteristic binding is a clever fac-simile of the morocco binding which Charles II. so loved.
We are indebted to the publishers of the National Illustrated Library for a new memoir of the great founder of American independence. The Life of General Washington, First President of the United States, written by himself; comprising his Memoirs and Correspondence, as prepared by him for publication, including several Original Letters now first printed, edited by the Rev. C. W. Upham, forms two volumes, which have been written or compiled on the principle, now we believe first applied to Washington, of making the subject of the memoir, its far as possible, his own biographer. This task Mr. Upham has executed with much ability and excellent judgment; and we know of no work calculated to give the general reader a better or more correct idea of the personal character of one of whom the Americans boast, that he was "first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen."
Some of our readers may be interested to know that the collection of black-letter ballads, formerly in the Heber collection, and described in the Bibliotheca Heberiana, vol. iv. pp. 28-33., was sold on Monday last at the auction of Mr. Utterson's library at Messrs. Sotheby's. After a rather brisk bidding, Mr. Halliwell became the purchaser at the sum of 104l.
BROUGHAM'S MEN OF LETTERS. 2nd Series, royal 8vo., boards. Original edition.
KNIGHT'S PICTORIAL SHAKSPEARE. Royal 8vo. Parts XLII, XLIII, XLIV, L, and LI.
CONDER'S ANALYTICAL VIEW OF ALL RELIGIONS. 8vo.
NEWMAN'S (J. H.) PRESENT POSITION OF THE CATHOLICS IN ENGLAND.
HALLIWELL ON THE DIALECTS OF SOMERSETSHIRE.
SCLOPETARIA, OR REMARKS ON RIFLES, &c.
SOWERBY'S ENGLISH FUNGI. Vol. III.
SUPPLEMENT TO SOWERBY'S ENGLISH FUNGI.
EUROPEAN MAGAZINE. Vols. XXIII, XXIV, and XXV.
POETIC WREATH. Small 8vo. Newman.
GEMS FROM BRITISH POETS. 4 Vols. Tyas.
CALLIOPE, A SELECTION OF BALLADS LEGENDARY AND PATHETIC. Suttaby, 1808.
THE WORKS OF LORD BYRON. Vo's. VI, VII, and VIII. 12mo. Murray, 1823.
MALLETT'S POEMS. Bell's edition.
MALLETT'S PLAY OF ELVIRA. 1763.
JOANNIS LELANDI COLLECTANEA. Vol. V. 1774.
BISHOP PATRICK'S COMMENTARY ON THE BIBLE. The Volumes containing Joshua and Judges. Small 4to.
KENT'S ANTHEMS. Vol. I. folio. Edited by Joseph Corfe.
THE MATHEMATICIAN. Vol. I. No. 1. 1844.
MACULLOCH'S HIGHLANDS AND ISLANDS OF SCOTLAND.
BACK'S VOYAGE OF THE TERROR, 8vo.
BACK'S OVERLAND JOURNEY IN THE ARCTIC REGIONS, 8vo.
L'HISTOIRE DE LA SAINCTE BIBLE, par ROYAUMONDE: à Paris, 1701.
JOHNSON'S (DR. S.) WORKS, by MURPHY. Trade Edition of 1816, in 8vo. Vol XII. only.
SCOTT'S CONTINUATION OF MILNER'S CHURCH HISTORY, Vol. II. Part II. 8vo.
WINKELMAN'S REFLECTIONS ON THE PAINTING OF THE GREEKS, translated by FUSELI. London, 1765. 8vo.
ROYAL PROCLAMATIONS IN ENGLAND IN THE YEAR 1688, EXTENDING TO AND INCLUDING THE YEAR 1707. London, folio.
TYRWITT'S SOLID REASONS FOR PHILOSOPHIZING. Winchester, 1652.
BENTLEY'S MISCELLANY. The first two Volumes. In Numbers preferred.
MARVELL'S WORKS. 3 Vols. 4to.
MARVELL'S (ANDREW) LIFE.
KINGSTON-ON-HULL, any work upon.
EDWIN AND EMMA. Taylor, 1776. 5s. will be given for a perfect copy.
JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. Vol. V. Part I.
—— Vols. VIII. and IX. in Numbers.
POPE'S WORKS, BY WARTON, 1797. Vol. IV.
ROSCOE'S NOVELIST'S LIBRARY.—Tristram Shandy. Vol. II.
LINGARD'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 4to. edit. Vol. VII.
LEBEUF, TRAITE HISTORIQUE SUR LE CHANT ECCLESIASTIQUE.
*⁎* Letters, stating particulars and lowest price, carriage free, to be sent to MR. BELL, Publisher of "NOTES AND QUERIES," 186. Fleet Street.
REPLIES RECEIVED.—Arkwright—Burning Fern—Dr. Fell—Mother Damnable—Nuremberg Token—Arborei Fœtus—Rhymes on Places—Death from Fasting—He that runs may read—Elvan—Plague Stones—Hooping Cough—Mrs. Greenhill—Gospel Trees—King of the Beggars—Absalom's Hair—Moke—Ground Ice—Ve dal am daro—Whiting's Watch—Paget Family—The Word "Pignon"—Movable Pulpits—Dutch Pottery—Cynthia's Dragon Yoke—St. Christopher—Surnames or Sirenames—Moravian Hymns—We three—London Street Folks—Cromwell's Skull—Wyned—Family of Bullen—Article "An"—Coleridge's Christabel—Meaning of Lode—The Ring Finger—Can a Clergyman marry himself—Death of Pitt—Pedigree of the De Clares—Exeter Controversy—and many others, which we are prevented from acknowledging until next week.
W. W. E. T. The Queries are in type, and shall have early insertion.
C. W. V. S.