Part 1

Transcriber's note: A few typographical errors have been corrected: they are indicated by footnotes to the relevant item.

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NOTES AND QUERIES:

A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION FOR LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC.

"When found, make a note of."--CAPTAIN CUTTLE.

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No. 166.] SATURDAY, JANUARY 1. 1853 [Price Fourpence. Stamped Edition 5d.

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CONTENTS.

Page Our Seventh Volume 1

NOTES:--

Proclamations of the Society of Antiquaries, and their Value as Historical Evidences, by John Bruce 3

Curiosities of Advertising Literature, by Cuthbert Bede 4

On a Passage in "King Henry VIII.," Act III. Sc. 2., by S. W. Singer 5

Notes on Bacon's Essays, by P. J. F. Gantillon, B.A. 6

Latin Poems in connexion with Waterloo, by Lord Braybrooke 6

Sir Henry Wotton and Milton, by Bolton Corney 7

FOLK LORE:--Unlucky to sell Eggs after Sunset-- Old Song--Nursery Tale--Legend of Change 7

Passage in Hamlet 8

Volcanic Influence on the Weather, by Rev. Wm. S. Hesledon 9

MINOR NOTES:--Value of MSS.--Robert Hill--English Orthography--Bookselling in Glasgow in 1735--Epitaph on a Sexton 9

QUERIES:--

Eustache de Saint Pierre, by Philip S. King 10

Devizes, Origin of: a Question for the Heralds, by J. Waylen 11

MINOR QUERIES:--Gold Signet Ring--Ecclesia Anglicana--Tangiers: English Army in 1684--Smith-- Termination "-itis"--Loak Hen--Etymological Traces of the Social Position of our Ancestors--Locke's Writings-- Passage in Göthe's "Faust"--Schomberg's Epitaph by Swift--The Burial Service said by Heart--Shaw's Staffordshire MSS.--"Ne'er to these chambers," &c.-- County History Societies--Hugh Oldham, Bishop of Exeter--The English Domestic Novel--Dr. Young--Bishop Hall's Meditations--Chatterton--Passage in Job--Turner's View of Lambeth Palace--Clarke's Essay on the Usefulness of Mathematical Learning--"The General Pardon" 12

MINOR QUERIES WITH ANSWERS:--Edward the Confessor's Ring--The Bourbons 15

REPLIES:--

Emblems 15

Marriages en Chemise--Mantelkinder--Legitimation, by E. Smirke, &c. 17

Editions of the Prayer-Book prior to 1662, by Archdeacon Cotton 18

Etymology of Pearl, by Sir J. Emerson Tennant, &c. 18

"Martin Drunk," by Dr. E. F. Rimbault 19

Göthe's Reply to Nicolai 19

PHOTOGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE:--Processes upon Paper--Exhibition of Photography at the Society of Arts 20

REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES:--Quotation in Locke--Pic-nic-- Discovery at Nuneham Regis--Door-head Inscriptions--Cross and Pile--Rhymes upon Places--[Greek: Arnion]--Who was the greatest General?--Beech-trees struck by Lightning-- Passage in Tennyson--Inscriptions in Churches-- Dutensiana--Early Phonography--Kentish Local Names; Dray--Monument at Modstena--Book-plates--"World without end," &c. 23

MISCELLANEOUS:--

Books and Odd Volumes wanted 28

Notices to Correspondents 28

Advertisements 28

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OUR SEVENTH VOLUME.

We might, without any offence against truth or modesty, begin our Seventh Volume by congratulating ourselves and our Readers on the continued success and increasing circulation of our work. As to Truth, our Readers can only judge in part, and must take our word for the rest; but they may see enough in our pages to lead them to do so. Let them but look at the signatures which from time to time appear in our columns, and they will see enough to prove that we have the sanction of a list of names, high in literary reputation, such as it might seem ostentatious to parade in our columns on an occasion like the present. We abstain the more readily, because we have felt it our duty to do the thing so frequently and fully in our prospectuses. And as to Modesty, can there be any want of it in saying that with such--or perhaps we should say by such--contributors we have produced a work which the public has found acceptable? With such contributors, and others whom we should be proud to name with them, if they had given names which we cannot but know, but do not feel authorised to decypher--with such help, what sort of animal must an editor be who could fail to make a work worth reading? In fact, if not our highest praise, it is the plainest proof of the value of our publication, that we have done little or nothing except to give the reader the greatest possible quantity of matter in a legible form, wholly unassisted by graphic ornament or artistic decoration of any kind--without even the attraction of politics, scandal, or polemics.

Our pride is that we are useful; and that fact is proved by another to which it has given rise, namely, that we are favoured with many more contributions than we can possibly find room for; and therefore, instead of employing the occasion which offers for a few words with our Readers, by way of introduction to a new Volume, in any protracted remarks on what we have done, we would rather confer with them on the ways and means of doing more.

In the first place, let us say explicitly that we do not mean by the most obvious method of increasing the bulk of our publication. It is quite clear that we {2} could print twice as much on twice as many pages; but this is not what we mean. Those who refer to our earliest Numbers will see "how we are grown," and we are perfectly convinced that we are now quite grown up--that our quantity (to change the figure) is quite as much as our company wish to see set on the table at once, and our price quite as agreeable as if it were larger; for to enlarge the work without enlarging the price would be quite out of the question.

But, in the course of what we may now call considerable experience, during which we have seen the work grow up into the form which it now wears, we have been led to think, that if our friends will allow us to offer a few suggestions (on which some of them may perhaps improve), we may be able, with the same space and cost, to oblige more Correspondents; and not only by that means, but by rendering our information more select and valuable, increase the gratification of our Readers.

Our name suggests the idea of a work consisting of two parts; and, with regard to the first, we can only offer such obvious remarks as, that the more a writer condenses what he has to say, the less room his communication will occupy in print--and the less room he occupies, the more he will leave for others, &c. These are weighty and important truths, but such as we need not insist on.

But when we look at the other part, passing under the single name of "QUERIES," it becomes obvious that our work, instead of having, as its title would import, what Sir Thomas Browne calls a "bicapitous conformation," does in fact consist of three parts, which must be ranged under three different heads, and dealt with in three different ways. A little, modest, demure-looking QUERY slips into print, and by the time it has been in print a fortnight, we find that it has a large family of REPLIES, who all come about it, and claim a settlement on the ground of their parentage.

Now, it is on this matter that we think some improvement may be made. We would not on any account diminish our number of QUERIES, and would wish even our NOTES to be notes of interrogation as well as information. But between QUERIES and REPLIES, notwithstanding their family connexion, there is an essential difference. In every case the QUERY, in order to its answering the end for which it is proposed, must be public; but in a great many cases the REPLY need not be so. The QUERY may be a very proper and curious one, and interesting in a high degree to the proposer and several other persons, but the REPLY to it may involve details not generally interesting.[1] We shall not be thought to discourage such inquiries (while we consider the opportunity which we afford for making them one of the most valuable features of our work) if we illustrate this by suggesting that A. wishes for genealogical or family history; B. wants to know what the author of such or such a book which he is editing means by such or such a reference; C., who is editing another, wants a collation of this or that edition; D., who is writing a third book, in order to correct and enrich it, wants as many things (and heartily glad should we be to help him to get them) as would occupy half-a-dozen of our Numbers; and so we might go on, were it not quite unnecessary to pursue in detail the illustration of what is so plain. Now it has occurred to us, that if Correspondents who wish to make inquiries, the answers to which would obviously be of no general interest, would, with their Query, enclose a stamped envelope, directed in any way which they may think proper, it would often be in our power not only to transmit to them answers to their inquiries, but to put them in direct communication with those who could give them further information; and who would in many cases communicate with individuals of whose respectability and capacity they were satisfied, more freely than they would through a public channel. We shall be glad to know how far such a plan would be approved of. We must add, that it would enable us to make use of many REPLIES which it is impossible, under present circumstances, to insert; and we believe that many Answerers would not only be as well pleased to learn that their REPLIES had been transmitted to the Querist, but that, with a knowledge that they would be so transmitted, they would write with more freedom and fulness than if they expected the REPLY to be published. One thing only we should bargain for--and, having cut ourselves off from all hope of gain by desiring to have the envelopes directed, we think we have a right to ask it--it is, that if in this correspondence, of which we are the medium, they come to any curious and generally interesting results, they will send them to us, _pro bono publico_.

[Footnote 1: A valued Correspondent, who has strongly urged the adoption of the course which we are now recommending to our Readers, thus illustrates his position:--

"It seems to be a very good thing to have a medium of genealogical inquiry; but why should all the world be troubled with the answers to a man who writes,--

'Sir,--I shall be obliged to anybody who can give me a full account of my family.

JOHN SMITH.'

"Again, supposing X. Y. wants to borrow some not very common book which one happens to have, I am not going to write (and if I did so write you would not print it), 'If X. Y., as soon as he sees this, will call on the Pump at Aldgate, he will find my copy of the book tied to the spout, if the charity boys have not cribbed it; and he can return it or not, according to his conscience, if he has any."]

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Notes.

PROCLAMATIONS OF THE SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES, AND THEIR VALUE AS HISTORICAL EVIDENCES.

The work that is now going on at the Society of Antiquaries in reference to the collection of royal proclamations in their library, is one in which not merely the Fellows of that Society, but all historical students, are deeply interested. The Society possesses one of the three known largest collections of these public documents. They were formerly bound up in volumes of several different sizes, intermixed with a variety of fugitive publications, such as ballads and broadsides, which formed altogether a very incongruous collection. A short time since it was found that the binding of many of the volumes was very much worn, and that some of the documents themselves had been considerably torn and damaged. Under these circumstances, Mr. Lemon, of the State Paper Office, offered his services to the Council to superintend an entire new arrangement, mounting, binding, and calendaring, of the whole series of proclamations. His offer was of course gratefully accepted, and the work is now in active progress.

The collection is certainly the most important that is known, and is especially so in the reign of Elizabeth; in reference to which there is no collection at all approaching to it, either in completeness or value. Still there are many proclamations wanting: several of the Fellows of the Society have come forward most liberally to fill up gaps. MR. PAYNE COLLIER led the way in a contribution of great value; MR. SALT followed MR. COLLIER with a munificent donation of a whole collection relating to Charles II. and James II.; and upon Mr. Lemon's suggestion, and with the joint concurrence of Mr. Secretary Walpole and the Keeper of the State Paper Office, an interchange of duplicates has been effected between that office and the Society of Antiquaries, which has added forty proclamations to the Society's collection.

My principal reason for addressing you upon this subject is to ask you to suggest to your readers that a similar interchange of duplicates might be effected between the Society and any persons who chance to have duplicate proclamations in their possession.

It is of the very highest literary and historical importance that we should get together, in some accessible place, a collection of proclamations, which if not actually complete (a consummation hardly to be expected), shall yet approach to completeness. The collection at Somerset House offers the best opportunity for forming such a collection. It is by far the most nearly complete in existence, and is strong in that particular part of the series in which other collections are most defective, and in which missing proclamations are the most difficult to be supplied. At the Society of Antiquaries the collection will be accessible to all literary inquirers, and no doubt the Society will publish a proper catalogue, which is already in preparation by Mr. Lemon.

It is obvious that any person who chooses to contribute such stray proclamations, or copies of proclamations, as he may chance to have in his possession, will be helping forward a really good work, and the possessor of duplicates may not only do the same, but may benefit his own collection by an interchange.

The value of proclamations as historical authorities, and especially as authorities for the history of manners, and of our national progress, is indisputable. As I write, I have before me the _Booke of Proclamations_ of James I. from 1603 to 1609; and the page lying open affords a striking illustration of what I assert. It gives us A CHAPTER IN THE HISTORY OF OUR POST-OFFICE.

Immediately on the accession of James I., the high north road from London to Edinburgh was thronged with multitudes of pilgrims hastening to the worship of the newly risen sun. Robert Carey became, in the words of Cowper's enigma, "the parent of numbers that cannot be told." Scotland has never poured into the south more active or more anxious suppliants than then traversed the northward road through Berwick. All ordinary accommodation soon fell short of the demand. Messengers riding post from the council to the king were stayed on the road for want of the ordinary supply of post-horses, all which were taken up by lords and gentry--rushing northward in the fury of their new-born loyalty. As a remedy for these inconveniences, the lords of the council issued a proclamation, calling upon all magistrates to aid the postmasters "in this time so full of business," by seeing that they are supplied with "fresh and able horses as necessitie shall require." Of course the supply was merely of horses. Travellers could not in those days obtain carriages of any kind. The horses were directed to be "able and sufficient horses, and well furnished of saddles, bridles, girts and stirropes, with good guides to looke to them; who for their said horses shall demand and receive of such as shall ride on them, the prices accustomed."

The new state of things became permanent. London, after James's removal from Edinburgh, being really the seat of government for the whole island, the intercourse both ways was continuous, and further general orders for its management were published by proclamation. There were at that time, on all the high roads through the country, two sorts of posts:--1. Special messengers or couriers who rode "thorough post," that is, themselves rode through the whole distance, "with horn and guide." Such persons carried with them an authentication of their employment in the {4} public service. In 1603, they were charged "two-pence halfe-peny the mile" (raised in 1609 to threepence) for the hire of each horse, "besides the guide's groats." The hire was to be paid beforehand. They were not to ride the horses more than one stage, except with the consent of "the post of the stage" at which they did not change. Nor were they to charge the horse "with any male or burden (besides his rider) that exceedeth the weight of thirtye pounds." Nor to ride more than seven miles an hour in summer or six in winter. 2. The other sort of post was what was termed the "post for the packet." For this service every postmaster was bound to keep horses ready; and on receipt of a "packet" or parcel containing letters, he was to send it on towards the next stage within a quarter of an hour after its arrival, entering the transaction in "a large and faire ledger paper book." Two horses were to be kept constantly ready for this service, "with furniture convenient," and messengers "at hand in areadinesse." The postmaster was also to have ready "two bags of leather, at the least, well lined with bayes or cotton, to carry the packet in." He was also to have ready "hornes to sound and blow, as oft as the post meets company, or foure times in every mile."

The "post for the packet" was at first used only for the carriage of despatches for the government or for ambassadors, but a similar mode of conveyance soon began to be taken advantage of by merchants and private persons. Difficulty in obtaining posts and horses for the conveyance of private packets, led to the interference of "certain persons called hackney-men, tapsters, hostlers, and others, in hiring out their horses, to the hinderance of publique service, danger to our state, and wrong to our standing and settled postes in their several stages." The government of James I. thought, in its blindness, that it could put a stop to the dangerous practice of transmitting unofficial letters, by rendering it penal for private persons to carry them; that of Charles I., wiser, in this respect, in its generation, settled a scheme for their general conveyance through the medium of "a letter office." But the "post for the packet," with his leathern bag and his twanging horn (the origin, of course, of our mail-coach horn), continued down to a late period, and probably still lingers in some parts of the kingdom. Cowper, it will be remembered, describes him admirably.

JOHN BRUCE.

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CURIOSITIES OF ADVERTISING LITERATURE.

We are all well acquainted with the ingenious artifices by which modern advertisers thrust their wares upon the attention of newspaper readers. We may, perhaps, have been betrayed into the expression of come rude Saxon expletive, when, in the columns devoted to news and general information, we have in our innocence been tempted with a paragraph that commenced with "a clever saying of the illustrious Voltaire's," and dovetailed into a panegyric of Messrs. Aaron and Son's Reversible Paletots; or we may have applauded the clever logician who so clearly demonstrates, that as Napoleon's bilious affection frequently clouded his judgment in times of greatest need, the events of the present century, and the fate of nations, would have been reversed, had that great man only been persuaded to take two boxes of Snooks's Aperient Pill, price 1s. 1½d., with the Government stamp on a red ground (see Advt.). All these things we know very well; but, of the fugitive literature that does not find a place in the advertising columns of _The Times_, but flashes into Fame only in the pages of some local oracle, or in some obscurer broad-sheet, how often must it remain unappreciated, and doomed to "waste its sweetness on the desert air." That this may not be said of the following burst of advertising eloquence, I trust it may be found worthy a niche in the temple of "N. & Q." In its composition the author was probably inspired by the grand scenery of the Cheviots, in a village near to which his shop was situate. It was one of those "generally-useful" shops where the grocer and draper held equal reign, and anything could be got, from silks and satins to butter and Bath bricks. The composition was printed and distributed among the neighbouring families; but shortly after, when the author heard that it had not produced the exact effect he had wished, he, with the irritability that often accompanies genius, resolved to get back and destroy every copy of his production, and deny to the world that which it could not appreciate. Fortunately for the world's welfare, I preserved a copy of his hand-bill, of which this, in its turn, is a faithful transcript:

"_To the Inhabitants of G. and its neighbourhood._

"The present age is teeming with advantages which no preceding Era in the history of mankind has afforded to the human family. New schemes are projecting to enlighten and extend civilisation, Railways have been projected and carried out by an enterprising and spirited nation, while Science in its gigantic power (simple yet sublime) affords to the humane mind so many facilities to explore its rich resources, the Seasons roll on in their usual course producing light and heat, the vivifying rays of the Sun, and the fructifying influences of nature producing food and happiness to the Sons of Toil; while to the people of G. and its neighbourhood a rich and extensive variety of Fashionable Goods is to be found in my Warehouse, which have just been selected with the greatest care. The earliest visit is requested to convey to the mind an adequate idea of the great extent of his purchases, comprising as it does all that is elegant and useful, cheap and substantial, to the light-hearted votaries of Matrimony, the Matrons of Reflection, the Man of Industry, and the disconsolate Victims of Bereavement.

J-- M--."

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The peroration certainly exhibits what Mrs. Malaprop calls "a nice derangement of epitaphs:" and, us for the rest, surely "the force of" bathos "could no further go."

CUTHBERT BEDE, B.A.

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ON A PASSAGE IN "KING HENRY VIII.," ACT III. SC. 2.

One of the most desperately unintelligible passages in Shakspeare occurs in this play, in the scene between the King and the Cardinal, when the latter professes his devoted attachment to his service. It stands thus in the first folio: