Chapter 2

Mr. Editor,--The subject of inscribed dishes of latten, of which so many varieties have recently been imported, appears to be regarded with interest by several of your readers. I am indebted to the Rev. William Drake, of Coventry, for a rubbing from one of these mysterious inscriptions, upon an "alms-plate" in his possession. In the centre is represented the Temptation. There are two inscribed circles; on the inner and broader one appear letters, which have been read,--RAHEWISHNBY. They are several times repeated. On the exterior circle is the legend On the exterior circle is the legend--ICH. SART. GELUK. ALZEIT. This likewise is repeated, so as to fill the entire circle. I have never before met with these inscriptions in the large number of dishes of this kind which I have examined. The have been termed alms-dishes, and are used still in parochial collections in France, as doubtless they have been in England. They were also used in ancient times in the ceremony of baptism, and they are called baptismal basins, by some foreign writers. This use is well illustrated by the very curious early Flemish painting in the Antwerp Gallery, representing the seven sacraments. The acolyte, standing near the font, bears such a dish, and a napkin. The proper use of these latten dishes was, as I believe, to serve as a laver, carried round at the close of the banquet in old times, as now at civic festivities. They often bear devices of a sacred character; but it is probable that they were only occasionally used for any scared purpose, and are more properly to be regarded as part of the domestic appliances of former times.

ALBERT WAY.

* * * * *

BARNACLES.

In Brand's _Popular Antiquities_, vol. iii. pp. 361, 362., there is an account given of _the barnacle_, "a well-known kind of shell-fish, which is found sticking on the bottoms of ships," and with regard to which the author observes, that "it seems hardly credible in this enlightened age, that so gross an error in natural history should so long have prevailed," as that this shell-fish should become changed into "a species of goose." The author then quotes Holinshed, Hall, Virgidemiarum, Marston, and Gerard; but he does not make the slightest reference to Giraldus Cambrensis, who is his _Topographia Hiberniae_ first gave the account of the barnacle, and of that account the writers referred to by Brand were manifestly but the copyists.

The passage referring to "the barnacle" will be found in the _Topog. Hiber._ lib. i. e. xi. I annex a translation of it, as it may be considered interesting, when compared with the passages quoted in Brand:--

"There are," says Giraldus, "in this country (Ireland) a great number of birds called barnacles (Bernacre), and which nature produces in a manner that is contrary to the laws of nature. The birds are not unlike to ducks, but they are somewhat smaller in size. They make their first appearance as drops of gum upon the branches of firs that are immersed in running waters; and then they are next seen hanging like sea-weed from the wood, becoming encased in shells, which at last assume in their growth the outward form of birds, and so hang on by their beaks until they are completely covered with feathers within their shells, and when they arrive at maturity, they either drop into the waters, or take their flight at once into the air. Thus from the juice of this tree, combined with the water, are they generated and receive their nutriment until they are formed and fledged. _I have many times with my own eyes seen several thousand of minute little bodies of these birds attached to pieces of wood immersed in the sea, encased in their shells, and already formed._ These then are birds that never lay eggs, and are never hatched from eggs; and the consequence is, that in some parts of Ireland, and at those seasons of fasting when meat is forbidden, bishops and other religious persons feed on these birds, because they are not fish, nor to be regarded as flesh meat. And who can marvel that this should be so? When our first parent was made of mud, can we be surprised that a bird should be born of a tree?"

The notion of the _barnacle_ being considered a fish is, I am aware, one that still prevails on the western coast of Ireland; for I remember a friend of mine, who had spent a few weeks in Kerry, telling me of the astonishment he experienced upon seeing pious Roman Catholics eating barnacles on Fridays, and being assured that they were nothing else than fishes! My friend added that they had certainly a most "fish-like flavour," and were, therefore, very nasty birds.

W.B. MACCABE.

* * * * *

DORNE THE BOOKSELLER.

Mr. Editor,--I beg to add my protest to your own, respecting the conclusion drawn by your valuable correspondent W. as to his competency to his arduous task, which no person could doubt who knows him. My remarks had reference to the supposed scribe of the catalogue, whose brains, according to W., were in some degree of confusion at times. His name is still _in obscuro_, it seems. "Henno Rusticus" is clear. W., I trust, will accept my apology. I say with Brutus, _verbis paulo mutatis_--

"By heaven, I had rather coin my heart, And drop my blood for drachmas, than to _plant In the kind bosom of a friend a thorn_, By any indirection."

J.I.

* * * * *

REV. WM. STEPHENS' SERMONS.

Sir,--Amongst the books wanted in your sixth number is "a Tract or Sermon" of the Rev. Wm. Stephens. It is a sermon, and one of four, all of which are far above the ordinary run of sermons, and deserving of a place in every clergyman's library. They are rarely met with together, though separately they turn up now and then upon book stalls amongst miscellaneous sermons; it is a pity they are not better known, and much is every day republished less deserving of preservation. The author's widow published her husband's sermons in two volumes; but, strange to say, these, which are worth all the rest, are not included in the collection. The titles of the four sermons are--

"The Personality and Divinity of the Holy Ghost proved from Scripture, and the Anti-Nicene Fathers." Preached before the University of Oxford, St. Matthias' Day, 1716-17. Third Edition, 1725.

"The Catholic Doctrine concerning the Union of the Two Natures in the One Person of Christ stated and vindicated." Preached at the visitation of the Bishop of Oxford, 1719. Second Edition, 1722.

"The Divine Persons One God by an Unity of Nature: or, That Our Saviour is One God with His Father, by an External Generation from His Substance, asserted from Scripture and the Anti-Nicene Fathers." Preached before the University of Oxford, 1722. Second Edition, 1723.

"The Several Heterodox Hypotheses, concerning both the Persons and the Attributes of the Godhead, justly chargeable with more inconsistencies and Absurdities than those which have been groundlessly imputed to the Catholic system." Preached at the visitation of the Bishop of Exeter, 1724.

I shall be glad to learn from any of your readers whether the author published any other sermons or tracts which are not included in the two volumes of his sermons.

WM. DENTON

Shoreditch, Dec. 11. 1849.

* * * * *

ROGER DE COVERLEY.

Sir,--In No. 4 of your "NOTES AND QUERIES" it is asked, if any notice of the tune called _Roger de Coverley_ is to be met with earlier than 1695, when it was printed by H. Playford in his _Dancing Master_? I am happy in being able to inform your correspondent that the tune in question may be found in a rare little volume in my possession, entitled "The Division-Violin, containing a Choice Collection of Divisions to a Ground for the Treble-Violin. Being the first Musick of this kind ever published. London, Printed by J.P. and are sold by John Playford, near the Temple-Church, 1685, small oblong."

I have every reason to believe, from considerable researches, that no earlier copy can be found in print.

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

* * * * *

MINOR NOTES.

_Omission of the Words DEI GRATIA from the new Florin._

Ruding, in his _Annals of the Coinage_, iv. 9., furnishes a precedent for the omission of the words DEI GRATIA from the coinage, in the case of the Irish half-pence and farthings coined at the Tower in 1736-7. And he supplies, also, a precedent for the dissatisfaction with which their omission from the new florin has been received, in the shape of two epigrams written at that time, for which he is indebted (as what writer upon any point of English literature and history is not) to Sylvanus Urban. The first (from the _Gentlemen's Magazine_ for June, 1837) is as follows:--

"No Christian kings that I can find, However match'd or odd, Excepting ours have ever coin'd Without the _grace of God_.

"By this acknowledgment they show The mighty King of Kings, As him from whom their riches flow, From whom their grandeur springs.

"Come, then, Urania, aid my pen, The latent cause assign,-- All other kings are mortal men, But GEORGE, 'tis plain, 's divine."

The next month produced this address:--

_To the Author of the Epigram on the new Irish Halfpence._

"While you behold th' imperfect coin Receiv'd without the _grace of God_, All honest men with you must join, And even Britons think it odd.

The _grace of God_ was well left out, And I applaud the politician; For when an evil's done, no doubt, 'Tis not by _God's grace_, but permission."

_Grace's Card, the Six of Hearts._

As a note to the communications which have lately amused your readers, respecting the nine of diamonds, and the curse of Scotland, allow me to remind you of another card which has a peculiar name, the origin of which is better ascertained.

At the Revolution of 1688, one of the family of Grace, of Courtstown in Ireland, raised and equipped a regiment of foot and a troop of horse, at his own expense, for the service of King James, whom he further assisted with money and plate, amounting, it is said, to 14,000_l_. He was tempted with splendid promises of royal favour, to join the party of King William. A written proposal to that effect was sent to him by one of the Duke of Schomberg's emissaries. Indignant at the insulting proposal, the Baron of Courtstown seized a card, which was accidentally lying near him, and wrote upon it this answer: "Go, tell your master, I despise his offer! Tell him that honour and conscience are dearer to a gentleman than all the wealth and titles a prince can bestow!" The card happened to be the "six of hearts," and to this day that card is generally known by the name of "Grace's card," in the city of Kilkenny.

I derive these particulars principally from the _Memoirs of the Family of Grace_, by Sheffield Grace, Esq. 4to. London, 1823, p. 42.

W.L.

_Florins._

The following extract from the Issue Roll of Easter I Edward III. 1327, may interest the inquirers into the antiquity of the FLORIN, lately introduced into our coinage:--

"To Robert de Wodehouse, keeper of the King's Wardrobe, for the price of 174 florins from Florence, price each florin as purchased, 39-1/2_d_. paid to the same keeper by the hands of John de Houton, his clerk, for one pound and one mark of gold, to make oblations on the day of the coronation for the Lord the King:--and in the manner was delivered 104 florins and a mark of 70_s_. by the king's command, under the privy seal, which was used before he received the government of this kingdom,--£28.12.6."

[Greek: Phi].

_John Hopkins, the Psalmist._

Sir,--Little is known of the personal history of John Hopkins, the coadjutor of Sternhold in the translation of the Psalms. It is generally agreed that he was a clergyman and a schoolmaster in Suffolk, but no one has mentioned in what parish of that county he was beneficed. It is highly probably that the following notes refer to this person, and if so, the deficiency will have been supplied by them.

In Tanner's List of the Rectors of Great Waldingfield in Suffolk, taken from the Institution Book at Norwich, there is this entry:--

"Reg. xix. 55 12 Aug. 1561 Joh. Chetham, ad praes. Willi Spring, Arm. Jo. Hopkins. 168. 3 April, 1571. Tho. Cooke, ad praes. Edw. Colman, B.D."

In the Parish Register of Great Waldingfield is the following:--

"Buried, 1570. Mr. John Hopkins, 23rd Oct."

D.

* * * * *

NOTES IN ANSWER TO MINOR QUERIES.

_Genealogy of European Sovereigns._

Sir,--Perhaps the following books will be of service to your correspondent Q.X.Z., viz.:--

"A Genealogical History of the present Royal Families of Europe, the Stadtholders of the United States, and the Succession of the Popes from the 15th century, &c. &c., by the Rev. Mark Noble." London, 1781.

"Historical and Genealogical, Chronological, and Geographical Atlas, exhibiting all the Royal families in Europe, their origin, Descent, &c., by M. Le Sage." London, 1813.

"Complete Genealogical, Historical, Chronological, and Geographical Atlas, &c., by C.V. Lavoisne." Philadelphia, 1821.

W.J.B.

_Countess of Pembroke's letter--Drayton's Poems--A Flemish Account--Bishop Burnet._

Your correspondent, at p. 28., asks whether there is any contemporary copy of the celebrated letter, said to have been written by Anne, Countess of Pembroke, to Sir Joseph Williamson? I would refer him to Mr. Hartley Coleridge's _Lives of Distinguished Northerns_, 1833, p. 290. His arguments for considering the letter _spurious_, if not conclusive, are very forcible, but they are too copious for this paper.

Your readers, who may not be conversant with that undeservedly neglected volume, will confess their obligation, when they have consulted its pages, in having been directed to so valuable and so original a work. It may be observed, that those letters of the Countess which are authentic, are certainly written in a very different style to the one in question; but this letter, if addressed by her to Sir Joseph Williamson, would be written under peculiar circumstances, and being in her 84th year, she might naturally have asked the assistance of the ablest pen within her reach. I have the copy of an interesting letter, addressed by the late Mr. John Baynes to Ritson, in 1785, stating his admiration of the Countess's "spirit and industry, having seen the collections made by her order relative to the Cliffords--such as no other noble family in the world can show."

I join in wishing that Mr. Pickering would add a judicious selection from Drayton's poetical works to his _Lives of Aldine Poets_. To the list given by your correspondent (p. 28.), may be added a work entitled _Ideas Mirrour Amours in quatorzains_ (London, 1594, 4to. p. 51.), which was lent to me about forty years ago, but which I have not seen since. Some notice of it, by myself, will be found in the _Censura Literaria_. with the following note by Sir C. Brydges:--"The extreme rarity of this publication renders a farther account desirable, and also more copious extracts. It appears wholly unknown to Herbert, and to all the biographers of Drayton." It is unnoticed by Ritson also. Chalmers, in his _Series of English Poets_, has referred to this communication, but he has not printed the poem amongst Drayton's works.

The expression "a Flemish account" is probably not of very long standing, as it is not found in the most celebrated of our earlier dramatists, unless, indeed, Mrs. Page's remark on Falstaff's letter may be cited as an illustration:--"What an unweighed behaviour hath this Flemish drunkard _picked out of my conversation_, that he dares in this manner assay me."

If the habit of drinking to excess prevailed in the Low Countries in the sixteenth century to the extent represented, may not the expression have arisen from that circumstance, and been equivalent to the contempt which is usually entertained for the loose or imperfect statements made by a tipsy or drunken man?

When quoting opinions upon Burnet, we must not forget the brief but pregnant character which Burke has given of the Bishop's _History of his Own Times_. In his admirable speech at Bristol, previous to the election if 1780, Burke says, "Look into the History of Bishop Burnet; _he is a witness without exception_."

Dr. Johnson was not so laudatory:--"Burnet is very entertaining. The style, indeed, is mere chit-chat. I do not believe that he intentionally lied; but he was so much prejudiced, that he took no pains to find out the truth."

The reader may refer to Dr. Hickes's _Criticism_ (Atterbury's _Correspondence_, i. 492.). Calamy's expression is a significant, if not a very complimentary one, as regards Burnet's candour (_Life and Times_, i. 59.).

I.H.M.

Bath, Dec. 1849.

_Viz., why the contracted form of Videlicet._

I shall be much obliged if any one of your readers can inform me of the _principle_ of the contraction viz. for videlicet, the letter _z_ not being at all a component part of the three final syllables in the full world.

[Cross symbol]

[Is not our correspondent a little mistaken in supposing that the last letter in "viz." as originally a letter z? Was it not one of the arbitrary marks of contraction used by the scribes of the middle ages, and being in form something like a "z," came to be represented by the early printers by that letter? In short, the sign3 was a common abbreviation in records for terminations, as omnib3 for omnib_us_, hab3 for hab_et_. Vi3, corruptly viz. is still in use.]

_Authors of Old Plays._

We are enabled by the courtesy of several correspondents, to answer two of the Queries of Q.D., in No. 5. p. 77., respecting the authors of certain old plays.

G.H.B. informs us that _Sicily and Naples_ was written by Samuel Harding; of whom, as we learn from J.F.M., an account will be found in Wood's _Athenae_.

NASO informs Q.D. that _Nero_ was written by Matthew Gwinne; there are two editions of it, viz. 1603 and 1633,--and that a copy of it may be procured at 17. Wellington Street, Strand, for 2_s_.

_Birthplace of Coverdale._

Can you inform me of the birthplace of Miles Coverdale?

W.C.

["Bishop Myles Coverdale is supposed to have been born in the year of our Lord 1488, in the district of Coverdale, in the parish of Coverham, near Middleham, in the North Riding of Yorkshire; and it is the opinion of the learned historian of Richmondshire, that it is an assumed, and not a family name." These are the words of the Rev. Geo. Pearson, B.D., the very competent editor of the works of Bishop Coverdale, published by the Parker Society. His reference is to Whitaker's _Hist. of Richmondshire_, vol. i. p. 17.]

_Caraccioli--Author of Life of Lord Clive._

In reply to K.'s query in No. 7., I have to inform him that "Charles Caraccioli, Gent." called himself "the Master of the Grammar School at Arundel," and in 1766 published a very indifferent _History of the Antiquities of Arundel_; and deprecating censure, he says in his preface, "as he (the author) was educated and till within these few years has lived abroad, totally unconversant with the English tongue, he flatters himself that the inaccuracies so frequently interspersed through the whole, will be observed with some grains of allowance." His _Life of Lord Clive_ was a bookseller's compilation.

WM. DURRANT COOPER.

* * * * *

QUERIES.

LOVE, THE KING'S FOOL OF THAT NAME.

In Rawlinson's Manuscripts in the Bodleian (c. 258.), which I take to have been written either in, or very soon after, the reign of Henry VIII., there is a poem thus entitled:--

"THE EPITAPHE OF LOVE, THE KYNGE'S FOOLE."

Can any of your readers furnish me with information regarding him? He was clearly a man worthy of notice, but although I have looked through as many volumes of that period, and afterwards, as I could procure, I do not recollect meeting with any other mention of him. Skelton, who must have been his contemporary, is silent regarding him; and John Heywood, who was also living at the same time, makes no allusion to him that I have been able to discover. Heywood wrote the "Play of Love," but it has nothing to do with the "King's fool."

The epitaph in question is much in Heywood's humorous and satirical style: it is written in the English ballad-metre, and consists of seven seven-line stanzas, each stanza, as was not unusual with Heywood, ending with the same, or nearly the same, line. It commences thus:

"O Love, Love! on thy sowle God have mercye; For as Peter is _princeps Apostolorum_, So to the[e] may be sayd clerlye, Of all foolys that ever was _stultus stultorum_. Sure thy sowle is in _regna polorum_, By reason of reason thou haddest none; Yet all foolys be nott dead, though thou be gone."

In the next stanza we are told, that Love often made the King and Queen merry with "many good pastimes;" and in the third, that he was "shaped and borne of very nature" for a fool. The fourth stanza, which mentions Erasmus and Luther, is the following:--

"Thou wast nother Erasmus nor Luter; Thou dyds medle no forther than thy potte; Agaynst hye matters thou wast no disputer, Amonge the Innocentes electe was thy lotte: Glad mayst thou be thou haddyst that knotte, For many foolys by the[e] thynke them selfe none, Yet all be nott dead, though thou be gone."

The next stanza speaks of "Dye Apguylamys," who is told to prepare the obsequy for Love, and of "Lady Apylton," who had offered a "mass-penny," and the epitaph ends with these stanzas:

"Now, Love, Love! God have mercy on thy mery nowle; And Love! God have mercye on thy foolysche face, And Love! God have mercye on thy innocent sowle, Which amonges innocentes, I am sure, hath a place, Or ellys thy sowle ys yn a hevy case; Ye, ye, and moo foolys many [a] one, For foolys be alyve, Love, though thou be gone.

"Now, God have mercye on us all, For wyse and folysche all dyethe, Lett us truly to our myndes call; And to say we be wyse owr dedes denyethe, Wherefore the ende my reason thys aplyethe: God amend all foolys that thynke them selfe none, For many be alyve, thoughe Love be gone."

It is very possible that I have overlooked some common source of information to which I may be referred; and it is very possible also, that this epitaph has been reprinted in comparatively modern times, and I may not know of it. This is one of the points I wish to ascertain.

J. PAYNE COLLIER.

[Was there no such person as Love, and does the writer mean merely to pun upon the word? Cupid certainly played the fool in the court of Henry VIII. as much as any body.]

* * * * *

MARE DE SAHAM--POSTUM PUSILLUM--WATEWICH.

I am much obliged by J.F.M's answers respecting those places. If he will look to the _Historia Eliensis_, lib. ii. c. 84, 85. vol. i. pp. 200-204. (_Anglia Christiana_), he may be certain whether or not he has correctly designated them. He may at the same time, if he be well acquainted with Cambridgeshire, give me the modern interpretation for _Watewich_, also mentioned in chap. 84. of the _Hist. Eliens_.

W.B.M.

* * * * *

THE ADVENT BELLS.