Part 3

In the amusing contest between the gypsies related in the same chapter, these worthies were too wise to go to law about the residuary shilling, and did therefore choose their choice friends Rook and Shark, and our late English Guzman, to be their arbitrators and umpires.

What is the explanation of these names? There appears to be some natural consequence to this choice, for the decision seems to have been arrived at by the act of reference. The notes explain that by "our English Guzman"[4] was intended one James, a noted thief. I suppose his prototype was Don Guzman D'Alfarache; but no interpretation of the passage is given. Would it be found to have reference to some passage in the book referred to in the note?

ANON.

[Footnote 4: [Sir Harris Nicolas says: "The allusion is to a work which had appeared three years before: _The English Gusman; or, the History of that unparalleled Thief, James Hind_, written by G. F. [George Fidge] 4to., London, 1652. Hind appears to have been the greatest thief of his age; the son of a saddler at Chipping Norton, and apprenticed to a butcher. In the rebellion he attached himself to the royal cause, and was actively engaged in the battles of Worcester and Warrington. In 1651, he was arrested by order of parliament, under the name of Brown, 'at one Denzy's, a barber over against St. Dunstan's Church, Fleet Street;' which circumstance may have introduced him to Walton's notice."--ED.]]

{610}

_Radish Feast._--I copied the following from the north door of St. Ebbe's Church, Oxford. Can any of your correspondents explain the origin and meaning of this feast?

"_St. Ebbe's Parish._

"The annual meeting for the election of Church-wardens for this Parish will be held in the vestry of the Parish Church on Easter Tuesday, at 4 o'clock in the afternoon.

"WM. BRUNNER, } WM. FISHER, } Churchwardens.

"Dated 10 April, 1852.

"The Radish Feast will be at the Bull Inn, New Street, immediately after the Vestry."

R. R. ROWE.

Cambridge.

_What Kind of Drink is Whit?_--In going over the famous old mansion Cothele, near Tavistock, the other day, I saw, among other primæval crockery, three pot-bellied jugs, two of which were inscribed "Sack, 1646;" and the third, a smaller one, "Whit, 1646." What kind of drink is _whit_?

W. G. C.

_"Felix natu," &c._--

"Felix natu, felicior vitâ, felicissimus morte."

Of whom was this said, and by whom?

HENRY H. BREEN.

St. Lucia.

"_Gutta cavat lapidem._"--Can any reader of "N. & Q." inform me whence the following verse is taken?

"Gutta cavat lapidem, non vi sed sæpe cadendo."

The first half, I know, is the commencement of a line in _Ov. ex Ponto_, Ep. x. v. 5., which concludes with--

"... consumitur annulus usu."

I have seen it quoted, but no reference given.

A. W.

Kilburn.

_Punch and Judy._--Are any of your readers of "N. & Q." not aware that _Punch and Judy_ is a corruption, both in word and deed, of _Pontius cum Judæis_, one of the old mysteries, the subject of which was Pontius Pilate with the Jews; and particularly in reference to St. Matt. xxvii. 19.? I should be glad to hear of some similar instances.

BOEOTICUS.

Edgmond, Salop.

_Sir John Darnall_ (Vol. v., pp. 489. 545.).--Can either of your correspondents, E. N. or G., inform me whether the Sir John Darnall, who is the subject of their communications, is descended from John Darnall, who was a Baron of the Exchequer in 1548, or give me any particulars of the "birth parentage, education, life, character, and behaviour" of the latter?

EDWARD FOSS.

_The Chevalier St. George._--Can any of the numerous readers of "N. & Q." inform me where ample and minute accounts, either in print or MS., of the Life and Court of the Chevalier St. George, particularly from the death of James II. to his own death, can be obtained; also, of his ministers of state, personal attendants, &c.? I have already examined such of the Stuart Papers as have been published by Mr. Glover, and by Brown in his _History of the Highland Clans_.

J. W. H.

_Declaration of 2000 Clergymen._--Several allusions have been lately made at Parliament to the 2000 clergymen who signed a Declaration calling in question the Queen's supremacy. Was a list of these clergymen ever published? If so, in what newspaper or periodical? What were the exact words of the declaration?

RUSTICUS.

_MS. "De Humilitate."_--Can any of your correspondents give me any information as to the date, authorship, or value of a MS. that has lately fallen into my hands? It is a thin quarto, beautifully written upon parchment. The title page is wanting, and the MS. commences with the index: but the title of the work is _De Humilitate_. It consists of twenty-four chapters. The heading of the first two is as follows:

"Incipit prologus in libello qui inscribitur de humilitate,

Cap. I. Quam perniciosum sit et Deo odibile superbiæ initium, et qualiter ac de quibus gloriandum sit.

II. Quod sit superbia fugienda et sectanda humilitas, quæ in sui vera cognitione fundata consistit," &c.

The top of the first page has a rich initial letter; and at the bottom a coat of arms: Crest, a leopard rampant; shield, argent, 3 bars gules, on a chief azure 3 fleur de lys or. The heading of each chapter is written in red ink.

CEYREP.

_MS. Work on Seals._--Moule, in his _Bibliotheca Heraldica_, states that there was at the date of the publication of his work (1822), in the library at Stowe, a MS. work, two volumes, folio, by Anstis, on the Antiquity and Use of Seals. Can any of your readers inform me in whose possession this work now is?

A. O. D. D.

_Sir George Carew._--Sir George Carew, the able commander and crafty statesman of Queen Elizabeth's time, was created Earl of Totness. His grandfather mortgaged his ancestral estate of Carew, in Pembrokeshire, to Sir Rhys ap Thomas, who, with its subsequent possessors, Sir John Perrot and the Earl of Essex, made great additions to Carew Castle, the magnificent remains of which entitle it to be called the ruined Windsor of Wales.

The Carews then pushed their fortunes in Ireland, and endeavoured to recover the "Marquisate of Cork" on an obsolete and false claim. {611}

The writer wishes for an accurate pedigree of Sir George Carew, showing his relationship to Sir Peter Carew, who was buried at Ross, and to Sir Peter who was killed at the skirmish of Glendalough in 1581.

H.

_Docking Horses' Tails._--I should be glad to learn when the practice of docking horses' tails commenced in England, or in any country of Europe, and what was the immediate cause of this amputation? I cannot trace in the plates of Froissart, or others of a later date, any indication of this practice, and in them there are no tails lopped of their fair proportions.

What other nations besides the English have ever docked their horses' tails; and where is any account to be found of their reasons for so doing?

If any of your correspondents will answer these Queries, I shall feel obliged.

TAIL.

_St. Albans, William, Abbot of._--Archbishop Morton addressed a monition in 1490 to William, Abbot of St. Albans. It is to be found in Wilkin's _Concilia_, iii. 632., and is extracted from Archbishop Morton's _Register_, fol. 22. b. Now, in Tanner's _Notitia_, and in Dugdale's _Monasticon_, it is stated that William Wallingford, Abbot of St. Albans, died in 1484; and that the chair was vacant until 1492, when Thomas Ramryge was elected abbot. Archbishop Morton's original letter is, I believe, to be seen in the register at Lambeth, and its date is distinctly 1490. This date, moreover, agrees with the Excerpta of Dr. Ducarel in the British Museum.

Can any of your readers solve this difficulty for me, as I am anxious to know immediately whether I may safely identify "William," the notorious evil-liver of Morton's monition, with "Wallington," who bears a respectable character in Dugdale's _Monasticon_.

L. H. J. TONNA.

_Jeremy Taylor on Friendship._--

"I am grieved at every sad story I hear. I am troubled when I hear of a pretty bride murdered in her bride-chamber by an ambitious and enraged rival," &c.--_Jeremy Taylor on Friendship_, p. 37, fol. Lond. 1674.

This was written A.D. 1657: what is the case referred to?

C. P. E.

_Colonel or Major-General Lee._--The dates of his letters tend to prove that Lee was on the continent in 1770, and this is apparently borne out by the "memoirs" published both in America and in England. But Dr. Girdleston, in his strange work published in 1813, asserts that on the 20th April, 1770, at the christening of Sir Charles Davis's eldest son, Charles Sydney, Lee was at Rushbrooke in Suffolk. The proof, however, is not adduced in a simple and straightforward manner. At page 6, Dr. Girdlestone tells us that some person, not named, remembers that Lee stood sponsor, &c.; at page 7, that the register proves that the baptism took place on the 20th April, 1770; and at page 13, that the register proves that Lee was on the 20th April "in that church." This last is the only fact bearing on the question at issue. Will any of your intelligent correspondents residing at Bury favour you with a copy of the register of the baptism of Charles Sydney on the 20th April, 1770?

C. M. L.

"_Roses all that's fair adorn._"--Can you inform me where I can find a copy of an old poem, which begins as follows:

"Roses all that's fair adorn, Rosy-finger'd is the morn," &c.;

since I have searched in vain for it.

W. S.

* * * * *

Minor Queries Answered.

_Donne._--In Walton's _Life of Donne_ it is said that Donne left behind him--

"The resultance of 1400 authors, most of them abridged and analysed with his own hand; he left also some six score of sermons, all written with his own hand."

Can any one tell me what has become of these MSS., and where they are now to be found if they still exist?

AJAX.

[The Sermons have been published in three volumes folio: the first printed in 1640, containing eighty; the second in 1649, containing fifty; and the third in 1660, containing twenty-six.]

_Dr. Evans._--Who was Dr. Evans, author of the _Sketch of Christian Denominations_? It would not be easy to ascertain, from internal evidence, what "denomination" he was himself! Who is the modern editor, the Rev. James Bransby?

A. A. D.

[Mr. Evans was born at Uske in Monmouthshire in 1767, studied at the Bristol Academy, and afterwards at the Universities of Aberdeen and Edinburgh. In 1792 he became pastor of a congregation of General Baptists in Worship Street, London; and opened an academy for youth in Hoxton, which was subsequently removed to Islington. In 1819 he obtained the diploma of Doctor of Laws from Brown University, in Rhode Island, America. His death took place Jan. 25, 1827. In doctrinal matters, we believe he was a mitigated Socinian; and we believe his Editor, who was a schoolmaster at Carnarvon, held the same theological views.]

* * * * *

Replies.

CARLING SUNDAY--ROMAN FUNERAL PILE.

(Vol. iii., p. 449.; Vol. iv., p. 381.; Vol. v., p. 67.)

At Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and many other places in the North of England, grey peas, after having been steeped a night in water, are fried with butter, given away, and eaten at a kind of entertainment on the Sunday preceding Palm Sunday, which {612} was formerly called Care or Carle Sunday, as may be yet seen in some of our old almanacks. They are called _carlings_, probably, as we call the presents at fairs, _fairings_. Marshal, in his _Observations on the Saxon Gospels_, tells us that "the Friday on which Christ was crucified is called in German both Gute Freytag and Carr Freytag;" that the word _karr_ signifies a satisfaction for a fine or penalty; and that Care or Carr Sunday was not unknown to the English in his time, at least to such as lived among old people in the country.

In the old Roman calendar I find it observed on this day (the 12th of March), that a dole is made of soft beans. I can hardly entertain a doubt but that our custom is derived from hence. It was usual among the Romanists to give away beans in the doles at funerals; it was also a rite in the funeral ceremonies of heathen Rome. There is a great deal of learning in Erasmus's _Adages_ concerning _the religious use of beans_, which were thought to belong to the dead. An observation which he gives us of Pliny concerning Pythagoras's interdiction of the pulse, is highly remarkable. It is "that beans contain the souls of the dead." For which cause also they were used in the Parentalia. Plutarch also, he tells us, held that pulse to be of the highest efficacy for invoking the manes. Ridiculous and absurd as these superstitions may appear, it is yet certain that our _carlings_ deduce their origin from thence. On the interdiction of this pulse by Pythagoras, the following occurs in Spencer _De Leg. Hebr._, lib. i. p. 1154.:--

"Quid enim Pythagoras, ejusque præceptores, Ægypti Mystæ, adeo leguminum, fabarum imprimis, esum et aspectum fugerent; nisi quod cibi mortuorum coenis et exequiis proprii, adeoque polluti et abominandi haberentur," &c.--Brand's _Observations on Popular Antiquities_, Ellis's ed., vol. i. pp. 95-99.

In the notes in loco is mentioned "a practice of the Greek church, not yet out of use, to set boyled corne before the singers at their commemorations of the dead," v. _Gregorii Opusc._, p. 128. The length of this reply will not admit of my here enumerating the other emblems of the resurrection of the body used by the fathers and other writers. I shall therefore conclude with an extract from Rennel's _Geographical System of Herodotus_, p. 632., relating to the Pythagorean prohibition of beans:--

"The Bengalese have the _Nymphæa nelumbo_ in their lakes and inundations; and its fruit certainly resembles at all points that of the second species of water-lily described by Herodotus; that is, it has the form of the orbicular wasp's nest; and contains kernels of the size and shape of a small bean. Amongst the Bramins this plant is held _sacred_; but the kernels, which are of a better flavour than almonds, are almost universally eaten by the Hindoos.

"It may, however, be a question whether it has always been the case; and whether in the lapse of time that has taken place since the days of Pythagoras (who is supposed to have visited India, as well as Chaldæa, Persia, and Egypt), a relaxation in discipline may not have occasioned the law to be dispensed with; instances enough of a like kind being to be met with elsewhere. _Kyamos_ in the Greek language appears to signify, not only a bean, but also the fruit or bean of the _Nymphæa nelumbo_. Is it not probable then that the mystery of the famous inhibition of Pythagoras, an enigma of which neither the ancients nor the moderns have hitherto been able to give a rational solution, may be discovered in those curious records of Sanscrit erudition, which the meritorious labours of some of our countrymen in India are gradually bringing to light?"

BIBLIOTHECAR. CHETHAM.

* * * * *

HART AND MOHUN.

(Vol. v., p. 466.)

In Downes' _Roscius Anglicanus_, edit. 1789, mention is made of these two actors, thus:

"Hart was apprentice to Robinson, an actor who lived before the Civil Wars; he afterwards had a captain's commission, and fought for Charles I. He acted women's parts when a boy.

"Mohun was brought up under Robinson, as Hart and others were: in his youth he acted Bellamente, in _Love's Cruelty_, which part he retained after the Restoration."--Page 10.

It appears to have been the practice of the old actors--the "master actors," as they were called--to take youths as apprentices, and to initiate them in female characters, as a preparatory step towards something weightier. Richard Robinson, above-mentioned, _circa_ 1616, usually performed female characters himself.[5] In 1647 his name occurs, with several others, prefixed to the dedication of the first folio edition of Fletcher's _Plays_. He served in the king's army in the civil wars, and was killed in an engagement by Harrison, who refused him quarter, and who was afterwards hanged at Charing Cross.

The patent of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, of which Mr. Hart and Major Mohun formed part of the company, having descended from Thomas to Charles Killigrew--

"In 1682 he joined it to Dr. Davenant's patent, whose company acted then in Dorset Garden, which, upon the union, were created the King's Company: after which Mr. Hart acted no more, having a pension to the day of his death from the United Company. I must not omit to mention the parts in several plays of some of the actors, wherein they excelled in the performance of them. First, Mr. Hart, in the part of Arbaces, in _King and no King_; Amintor, in the _Maid's Tagedy_; Othello; Rollo; Brutus, in _Julius Cæsar_; Alexander. Towards the latter end of his acting, if he {613} acted in any one of these but once in a fortnight, the house was filled as at a new play, especially Alexander; he acting that with such grandeur and agreeable majesty, that one of the Court was pleased to honour him with this commendation; that Hart might teach any king on earth how to comport himself."[6]

In Rymer's _Dissertation on Tragedy_ he is thus noticed:

"The eyes of the audience are prepossessed and charmed by his action, before aught of the poet can approach their ears; and to the most wretched of characters Hart gives a lustre which dazzles the sight, that the deformities of the poet cannot be perceived."

"He was no less inferior in Comedy; as Mosca, in the _Fox_; Don John, in the _Chances_; Wildblood, in the _Mock Astrologer_; with sundry other parts. In all the Comedies and Tragedies he was concerned, he perform'd with that exactness and perfection that not any of his successors have equall'd him."[7]

It would seem that through Hart's "excellent action" alone Ben Jonson's _Catiline_ (his own favourite play), which had been condemned on its first representation, was kept on the stage during the reign of Charles II. With Hart this play died.

Previous to Nell Gwyn's elevation to royal favour, it is said, upon the authority of Sir George Etherge, in _Lives of the most celebrated Beauties, &c._, 1715, she was "protected" by Lacy, and afterwards by Hart. Whether this be true or not, it is certain that she received instructions in the Thespian art from both of these gentlemen.

The cause of Hart retiring from the stage was in consequence of his being dreadfully afflicted with the stone and gravel, "of which he died sometime after, having a salary of forty shillings a week to the day of his death."

Hart's Christian name was Charles. He is believed by Malone to have been Shakspeare's great nephew.[8]

Major Mohun remained in the "United Company" after Hart's retirement.

"He was eminent for Volpone; Face, in the _Alchemist_; Melantius, in the _Maid's Tragedy_; Mardonius, in _King and no King_; Cassius, in _Julius Cæsar_; Clytus, in _Alexander_; Mithridates, &c. An eminent poet[9] seeing him act this last, vented suddenly this saying: 'Oh, Mohun, Mohun! thou little man of mettle, if I should write 100 plays, I'd write a part for thy mouth.' In short, in all his parts, he was most accurate and correct."[10]

Rymer remarks:

"We may remember (however we find this scene of Melanthius and Amintor written in the book) that at the Theater we have a good scene acted; there is work cut out, and both our Æsopus and Roscius are on the stage together. Whatever defect may be in Amintor and Melanthius, Mr. Hart and Mr. Mohun are wanting in nothing. To these we owe what is pleasing in the scene; and to this scene we may impute the success of the '_Maid's Tragedy_.'"

Major Mohun's Christian name was Michael.

W. H. LN.

Berwick-on-Tweed.

[Footnote 5: See _The Devil is an Ass_, Act II. Sc. 8.]

[Footnote 6: _Roscius Anglicanus_, p. 23.]

[Footnote 7: Ibid., p. 24.]

[Footnote 8: See _Historical Account of the English Stage_, in Malone's edition of Shakspeare, vol. i. part ii. p. 278. Lond. 1790.]

[Footnote 9: Thought by Thomas Davies to have been Lee.]

[Footnote 10: _Roscius Anglicanus._]

* * * * *

BURIAL WITHOUT RELIGIOUS SERVICE--BURIAL.

(Vol. v., pp. 466. 549.)

There can be no doubt, I think, that a burial ground, whether parish churchyard or cemetery, so long as it has been consecrated, or even licensed by the bishop, is only _legally_ useable for interments performed according to "the ecclesiastical laws of this realm;" _i.e._ the burial service, as rubrically directed, must be read by a clergyman over the corpse. Whether the bishop would have proceeded by law against the clergyman in Carlile's case, supposing he had desisted from the service under the protests of the sons, may be questioned; but that he could have done so is beyond a doubt. The sixty-eighth canon says, that "no minister shall refuse or delay to bury any corpse that is brought to the church or churchyard ... in such manner and form as is prescribed in the Book of Common Prayer. And if he shall refuse, &c., he shall be suspended by the bishop of the diocese from his ministry by the space of three months." The consecration, or episcopal licence, seems to tie the burial ground to the burial service, except in the three cases of persons who die excommunicated, unbaptised, or by their own hands; and I imagine that a clergyman would render himself liable to suspension by his bishop, who either allowed interments to take place in the churchyard without the burial service, or, on the other hand, used the service in unconsecrated or unlicensed ground. By the 3 Ja. I. c. 5., there is a penalty for burying a corpse away from the church; but this law is either repealed or obsolete. If any services of the church be used by a clergyman, except "according to order," I imagine that he renders himself liable to penal consequences; but it may be sometimes thought best to omit them. Sometimes, however, as in the case of baptisms being allowed in drawing-rooms, there is such an intentional oversight as is quite indefensible.

The story which I have heard of Baskerville's burial is as follows;--He died at Birmingham, but was not interred, and his corpse was kept in the house in which he had lived. After a time this house was sold, and the purchaser of it became embarrassed by the unexpected discovery that he was in possession of the old printer's mortal remains. He applied to the clergyman of {614} the parish for release from his difficulty; and this gentleman, being a man of the world, said that he was the last person who ought to have been consulted, but since it was so, the churchyard and the shades of evening afforded a remedy.

Perhaps it is worth adding, that when Sir W. Page Wood, the late Solicitor-General, would have brought a bill into parliament to relieve dissenters from the payment of church rates, on condition that they consented to forego all claim upon the services of the church, including of course the burial service, the bargain was declined by them.

ALFRED GATTY.

* * * * *

"QUOD NON FECERUNT BARBARI," ETC.

(Vol. v., p. 559.)

Your correspondent MR. BREEN is mistaken in supposing this "epigram" to refer to the Barberini spoliation of the Coliseum; it was an equally important and more sacrilegious theft that aroused Pasquin's satire and indignation.