Chapter 2

In several of the accounts there is a charge for the pupil's "salting;" and after consulting gentlemen more accurately informed with regard to the customs of the university than myself, I was obliged to append a note to the word, when it occurred for the first time in the account of Lord Edward Zouch, in which I said, "I must confess my inability to explain this word; and do not know whether it may be worth while to state that, on my mentioning it to a gentleman, once a fellow-commoner of the college, he told me, that when, as a freshman, he was getting his gown from the maker, he made some remark on the long strips of sleeve by which such gowns are distinguished, and was told that they were called 'salt-bags,' but he could not learn why; and an Oxford friend tells me, that going to the buttery to drink salt and water was part of the form of his admission.... This nobleman's (i.e. Lord Edward Zouch's) amounted to 4s., and that of the Earl of Cumberland to 3s. 4d., while in other cases it was as low as 8d." To this I added the suggestion that it was probably some fee, or expense, which varied according to the rank of the parties. It afterwards occurred to me that this "salting" was, perhaps, some entertainment given by the new-comer, from and after which he ceased to be "fresh;" and that while we seem to have lost the "salting" both really and nominally, we retain the word to which it has reference.

Be this as it may, my attention has just now been recalled to the question by my accidentally meeting with one of Owen's epigrams, which shows that in his time there was some sort of salting at Oxford, and also of peppering at Winchester. As I doubt not that you have readers well acquainted with the customs of both these seats of learning, perhaps some may be good enough to afford information. Owen was at Oxford not many years after Whitgift had been Master of Trinity at Cambridge, if (as Wood states) he took his bachelor's degree in 1590. The epigram is as follows:--

"Oxoniæ salsus (juvenis tum) more vetusto; Wintoniæque (puer tum) piperatus eram. Si quid inest nostro piperisve salisve libello, Oxoniense sal est, Wintoniense piper."

It is No. 64 in that book of epigrams which Owen inscribed "Ad Carolum Eboracensem, fratrem Principis, filium Regis," p. 205, edit. Elz, 1628. 12mo. I give this full reference in order to express my most hearty sympathy with the righteous indignation of my highly respected friend, your correspondent "L.S." (No. 15 p. 230.), against imperfect references. I do not, however, agree with him in thinking it fortunate that he is not a "despotic monarch;" on the contrary, now that I have not to take up verses, or construe Greek to him, I should like it of all things; and I am sure the world would be much the better for it.

S.R. MAITLAND.

Gloucester, Feb. 18. 1850.

* * * * *

A FEW DODO QUERIES.

The discovery and speedy extinction of that extraordinary bird the DODO, belongs rather to {262} human history than to pure zoology, and I therefore hope that a few Queries relating to this curious subject will be admissible into your publication. I have already, in the work entitled _The Dodo and its Kindred_, and in the Supplementary notices inserted last year in the _Annals and Magazine of Natural History_ (ser. 2. vol. iii. pp. 136, 259; vol. iv. p. 335), endeavoured to collect together the _omne scitum_ of the Dodo-history, but I am satisfied that the _omne scibile_ is not yet attained.

_Query I._--Is there any historical record of the first discovery of Mauritius and Bourbon by the Portuguese? These islands bore the name of _Mascarenhas_ as early as 1598, when they were so indicated on one of the De Bry's maps. Subsequent compilers state that they were thus named after their Portuguese discoverer, but I have not succeeded in finding any notice of them in the histories of Portuguese expeditions to the East Indies which I have consulted. The only appartently authentic indication of their discovery, that I am aware of, is the pillar bearing the name of John III. of Portugal, and dated 1545, which is stated by Leguat, on Du Quesne's authority, to have been found in Bourbon by Flacour, when he took possession of the island in 1653.

_Query II_.--It appears from Leguat's _New Voyage to the East Indies_, London, 1708, pp. 2, 37., that the Marquis Du Quesne, being desirous of sending out a colony from Holland to the Isle of Bourbon in 1689 or 1690, published (probably in Dutch) an account of that Island, with a view of inducing emigrants to go thither. I should be greatly obliged if any of your readers can tell me the title, date, and place of publication of this book, and where a copy of it is to be seen or procured.

_Query III_.--Are there in existence any original oil-paintings of the Dodo by Savery or any other artist, besides the five described in the _Dodo and its Kindred_--viz., the one at the Hague, at Berlin, at Vienna, at the British Museum, and at Oxford? And are there any original engravings of this bird, besides that in De Bry, in Clusius, in Van den Broecke, in Herbert, in Bontekoc, and in Bontius, of all which I have published fac-similes?

_Query IV_.--Are there any _original_ authors who mention the Dodo as a living bird, besides Van Neck, Clusius, Heemskerk, Willem van West-Zanen, Matelief, Van der Hagen, Verhuffen, Van den Broecke, Bontekoe, Herbert, Cauche, Lestrange, and Benjamin Harry? Or any authority for the _Solitaire_ of Rodriguez besides Leguat and D'Heguerty; or for the Dodo-like birds of Bourbon besides Castelton, Carré Sieur D.B., and Billiard?

_Query V_--In Rees' _Cyclopæia_, article BOURBON, we are told that in that island there is "a kind of large bat, denominated _l'Oiseau bleu_, which are skinned and eaten as a great delicacy." Where did the compiler of the article pick up this statement?

_Query VI_.--Is there in existence any figure, published or unpublished, of the Dodo-like bird which once inhabited the Isle of Bourbon?

_Query VII_--What is the derivation or meaning of the words _Dodaers_ and _Dronte_, as applied to the Dodo?

_Query VIII_.--Sir Hamon Lestrange has recorded that about 1638 he saw a living Dodo exhibited in London. (See _Sloane MSS_. 1839, v. p. 9. in Brit. Mus.; Wilkin's ed. of _Sir T. Browne's Works_, vol. i. p. 369.; vol. ii, p. 173.; _The Dodo and its Kindred_, p. 22.) Is there any contemporary notice extant in print or in MS. which confirms this statement? A splendidly bound copy of _The Dodo and its Kindred_ will be given to any one who can answer this query affirmatively.

_Query IX_.--In Holme's _Academy of Armory and Blazou_, Chester, 1688, p. 289, we find a Dodo figured as an heraldic device, a fac-simile of which is given in the _Annals of Natural History_, 2nd series, vol. iii. p. 260. The author thus describes it: "He beareth Sable a _Dodo_ or _Dronte_ proper. By the name of _Dronte_. This exotic bird doth equal a swan in bigness," &c. &c. Now I wish to ask, where did this family of _Dronte_ reside? Is anything known concerning them? How did they come by these arms? and are any members of the family now living?

_Query X._--From a passage in the _Histoire de l'Académie Royale des Sciences_, 1776, p. 37, it appears that Pingré the French astronomer, published, or at least wrote, a relation of his voyage to Rodriguez, in which he speaks of _Solitaires_. Is this the fact? and if so, what is the title of his work?

H.E. STRICKLAND.

* * * * *

ON PASSAGES IN COLERIDGE'S CHRISTADEL AND BYRON'S LARA. TABLET TO NAPOLEON.

I am one of those who look upon the creations of our great poets as deserving illustration almost as much as actual history; and I am always distressed when I meet with passages representing events with respect to which I cannot make up my mind as to what the author meant, or intended his readers to believe. Two of these occur to me at this moment, and I shall be much obliged by any of your correspondents giving, in your pages, brief replies to my queries, or referring me to any published works where I may find their solution.

1. What did Coleridge mean to represent or imply in his tale of _Christabel_? Who or what was Geraldine? What did Christabel see in her, at times, so unutterably horrible? What is meant by "the ladye strange" making Christabel _carry_ her over the sill of the portal? &c., &c. {263}

2. What does Byron mean us to infer that Lara _saw_ in his hall that midnight, when he so alarmed his household with

"A sound, a voice, a shriek, a fearful call, A long loud shriek--and silence."?

The poet, it is true, seems to refuse, purposely, to let his readers into the truth, telling them:--

"Whate'er his frenzy dream'd or eye beheld, If yet remember'd, ne'er to be reaveal'd, Rests at his heart."

But still, I conceive there can be no doubt that _he knew the truth_ (I speak as of realities), --knew what he intended to represent by so full and elaborate a delineation of a scene. And it is the author's meaning and intention that I wish to come at.

I will ask one more question relative to this magnificent poem (which I don't think has had justice done it by the critics), but one respecting which I hardly think there can be any doubt as to the author's secret meaning:--Is not the _Kaled_ of _Lara_ the _Gulnare_ of the _Giaour_?

Before concluding, I will add a query on a very different subject.

3. Many of your readers have, doubtless, seen the large marble tablet erected by the Vallaisians in honour of Napoleon, in the Convent of the Great St. Bernard. A recent traveller in Switzerland (Dr. Forbes) has, I find, noticed the inscription, and questioned, as I had done, both its meaning and Latinity. I extract this author's note as expressing exactly the point on which I desiderate information:--

"Having doubts both as to the precise meaning and lingual purity of the compound epithet _Bis Italicus_, here applied to Napoleon, I subjoin the passage in which it occurs, for the judgement of the learned:--

'NAPOLEONI ... ÆGYPTIACO BIS ITALICO SEMPER INVICTO ... GRATA RESPUBLICA.'"--_A Physician's Holiday_, p. 468.

EMDEE.

Athenæum, January 26. 1850.

* * * * *

MINOR QUERIES.

_Howkey or Horkey._-- Can anybody explain the etymology of the word _Howkey_ or _Horkey_, generally used to denote a harvest-home merriment in our eastern counties? Forbes speaks of it as an intractable word, and neither he nor Sir J. Cullum have succeeded in explaining it satisfactorily.

BRAYBROOKE.

Audley End, Feb. 16.

_Lord Bacon's Metrical Version of the Psalms._--The answer in No. 15. p. 235. to A CORNISHMAN'S Query (No. 13. p. 202) respecting "Bacon's Metrical Version of the Psalms," suggests another query. The work in question was a mere "exercise of sickness;" it contains only seven psalms (the 1st, 12th, 90th, 104th, 126th, 137th, and 149th), and is, without pretension of any kind, a very proper diversion for a mind that could not be inactive and yet required rest; and very good verses for a man unpractised in metrical composition. The _Collection of Apophthegms_ (also a recreation in sickness), though considerably larger and altogether weightier, was considered so trifling a work that Dr. Rawley, in his "perfect list of his Lordship's true works, &c.," appended to the first edition of the _Resuscitatio_ (1657), either forgot or did not think fit to mention it. Yet both these trifles were not only written but _published_, by Bacon himself the year before his death--a thing quite contrary to his practice; for though he had written and carefully preserved and circulated in manuscript so much, he had till then published nothing that was not of the weightiest and most solid kind. Can any of your correspondents inform me how much two such books may possibly have been _worth_ to a publisher in the year 1625; being works of low price and popular character, proceeding from an author of great name? How much is it reasonable to suppose that a publisher may have given for the copyright? or how far may it have gone towards the payment of a bookseller's bill?

J.S.

Feb. 7. 1850.

_Treatise of Equivocation._--I shall feel happy if, through your very opportune medium, I can obtain some information respecting a very extraordinary and mysterious book, as to its existence, local habitation, and any other _material_ circumstance, which has the title of _A Treatise of Equivocation._ The first recognition of the work is in the _Relation of the Proceedings in the Trial for the Powder Plot_, 1604. At signat. I. the Attourney-General, Sir E. Coke, appeals to it, and affirms that it was allowed by the Archpriest Blackwel, and that the title was altered to _A Treatise against Lying and Fraudulent Dissimulation_. He proceeds to describe some of its contents, as if he were himself acquainted with the book. Thomas Morton, Bishop of Lichfield, and Coventry, afterwards of Durham, in his _Full Satisfaction concerning a double Romish Iniquitie; Rebellion and Equivocation_, 1606, refers to the work as familiarly acquainted with it. (See Ep. Dedic. A. 3.; likewise pages 88 & 94.) He gives the authorship to Creswell or Tresham. He refers likewise to a Latin work entitled _Resolutio Casuum_, to the same effect, possibly a translation, to which he subjoins the names of Parsons and Allen. Robert Abbot, in his _Antilogia_, 1613, pp. 13, 14. emphatically and at length produces the same book and facts; but they are merely copied from the _Relation_ of the Powder-treason Trial. Henry Mason, in his most satisfactory work, _The New Art of Lying, &c._, 1624, has spoken of the {264} _Treatise_ with the same familiarity (see p. 51.), and elsewhere, if my memory does not deceive me. Dodd, in his _Church history_,--when will the new edition begin to move again? Can Stonyhurst tell?--ascribes the work to Tresham. Hardly any of the similar works in these times belong to _one_ author. It may just be added, that Parson's _Mitigation_ contains, perhaps, all the substance of the Roman equivocation, with not much reserve or disguise. It was published in answer to Bishop Morton's work in 1607. Foulis has, of course, substantially all the above, but nothing more.

Now, the questions which I want to have solved are these:--Was the book ever extant in MS. Or print? Is it now extant, and where? Who has seen a copy? What is its size, date, and extent? Has the Durham Cathedral Library, in particular, a copy? Mr. Botfield might have informed us. In fact, where is any effectual intelligence of the fugitive to be found?

J.M.

Feb. 8. 1850.

* * * * *

REPLIES.

ETYMOLOGY OF "ARMAGH."

Some of your correspondents have taken up the not unnatural idea, that the last syllable of the word "Armagh" is identical with the Celtic word _magh_, a plain. But there are two objections to this. In the first place, the name is never spelt in Irish _Armagh_, nor even _Ardmagh_, but always ARDMACHA. _Ardmagh_ or _Armagh_ is only the anglicised spelling, adapted to English tongues and ears. It is therefore clearly absurd to take this corrupt form of the word as our _datum_, in the attempt to search for its etymology. Secondly, the Irish names of places which are derived from, or compounded of, _magh_, a plain, are always anglicised, _moy, moi, mow_, or _mo_, to represent the pronunciation: as Fermoy, Athmoy, Knockmoy, Moira, Moyagher, Moyaliffe (or Me-aliffe, as it is now commonly spelt), Moville, Moyarta, and thousands of other cases. And those who are acquainted with the Irish language will at once tell, by the ear, that _Armagh_, as the word is pronounced by the native peasantry, even by those who have lost that language (as most of them in that district now have), could not be a compound of _magh_, a plain.

The work of M. Bullet, quoted by your correspondent "HERMES," is full of ignorant blunders similar to that which he commits, when he tells us that Armagh in compounded of "_Ar_, article, and _mag_, ville." The article, in Irish, is _An_, not _ar_; and _mag_ does not signify a town. He adopts, your readers will perceive, the modern English spelling, which could not lead to a correct result, even if M. Bullet had been acquainted with the Celtic languages. The same remark applies to the explanation given by the author of _Circles of Gomer_. _Ard_, not _Ar_, is the word to be explained; and therefore, even though _Ar_ and _Ararat_ meant, as he tells us, "earth, country, or upon and on the earth," this would throw no light on the etymology of ARD_macha_.

"HIBERNICUS" (No. 14. p. 217.) is partly right and partly wrong; he adopts the anglicised spelling of the second syllable, although he seems aware that the first syllable ought to be _Ard_; and he admits also that this word is a substantive, signifying a _height_, not the adjective _high_. "A high plain," in Irish, would be, not Ardmagh, or Ardmoy (as it would have been anglicised), but _Magh-ard_ (Anglice _Moyard_). Great light will be thrown on the whole subject of the etymology of Irish typographical names, when the Index to my friend Mr. O'Donovan's edition of the _Annals of the Four Masters_ makes its appearance.

I may add too, in conclusion, that Camden is wrong in suggesting that _Armach_ (as he spells it, retaining, curiously enough, the correct etymology of the last syllable) is identical with _Dearmach_ (where the last syllable ought to be _magh_). This latter place is the well-known Durrow, in the county Westmeath; and its name, in Irish, is _Duir-magh_, which is really a compound from _magh_, a plain. Bede tells us, that the word signified, in the Scottish language, _Campus roborum_ (see Bede, _Hist. Eccl._ lib. iii. c. 4.); but Adamson (_Vit. Columbæ_, c. 39.) more correctly translates it, "monasterium _Roboreti Campi_." It is not likely that such authorities could confound Durrow, in Westmeath, with the ecclesiastical metropolis of Ireland, and patriarchal see of St. Patrick.

Whoever the Mach or Macha was from whom Ardmacha has its name (whether the queen called Macha-mong-ruadh, whose reign is assigned by O'Flaherty to A.M. 3603, or the older Macha, who is said to be the wife of Nemedius), it should be borne in mind, that the word whose etymology is required is ARDMACHA[16], and not _Armagh._ What would be thought of the critic who would now attempt to investigate the etymology of the English word _bishop_, by dividing it into two syllables, and seeking analogies in sound for each syllable.

I have ventured to go at greater length into this matter than its importance may seem to warrant, because it illustrates so clearly a very general error, from which Celtic literature has deeply suffered, of inventing fanciful etymologies adapted to the modern English spellings, instead of the original Celtic forms of names; and this error, as the question before us proves, is as old as Camden's time, and older.

J.H. TODD.

Trin. Coll. Dublin, Feb. 2, 1850.

[16] Those who have access to Colgan's _Acta Sanctorum Hiberniæ_ will see that he always spells Armagh, _Ardmacha_; and Durrow, _Durmugia_.

* * * * *{265}

WILLIAM BASSE AND HIS POEMS.

I read with great pleasure MR. COLLIER'S interesting paper on "William Basse and his Poems," inserted in your 13th Number. Very little is known of this once popular poet, but it is very desirable that that little should be collected together, which cannot be better effected than through the friendly system of inter-communication established by your valuable journal.

From my limited researches upon this subject, it appears that there were two poets of the name of William Basse. Anthony Wood (_Athen. Oxon._, edit. Bliss. iv. 222.) speaks of one William Basse, of Moreton, near Thame, in Oxfordshire, who was some time a retainer of Lord Wenman, of Thame Park, i.e. Richard Viscount Wenman, in the peerage of Ireland. And I find among my MS. biographical collections that a William Basse, of Suffolk, was admitted a sizar of Emanuel College, Cambridge, in 1629. A.B. 1632, and A.M. in 1636. The William Basse who wrote _Great Brittaines Sunnes-set_ in 1613, was also the author of the MS. collection of poems entitled _Polyhymnia_, mentioned by MR. COLLIER. In proof of this it is merely necessary to notice the dedication of the former "To his Honourable Master, Sir Richard Wenman, Knight," and the verses and acrostics in the MS. "To the Right Hon. the Lady Aungier Wenman, Mrs. Jane Wenman, and the truly noble, vertuous, and learned Lady, the Lady Agnes Wenman." Basse's Poems were evidently intended for the press, but we may conjecture that the confusion of the times prevented them from appearing. Thomas Warton, in his _Life and Literary Remains of Ralph Bathurst, M.D._, has a copy of verses by the Dr. "To Mr. W. Basse, upon the intended publication of his Poems, January 13, 1651;" to which the learned editor adds, "I find no account of this writer or his poems." The whole consists of forty-four verses, from which I extract the beginning and the end:--

Basse, whose rich mine of wit we here behold As porcelain earth, more precious, 'cause more old; Who, like an aged oak, so long hath stood, And art religion now as well as food: Though thy grey Muse grew up with elder times, And our deceased grandsires lisp'd thy rhymes; Yet we can sing thee too, and make the lays Which deck thy brow look fresher with thy praise. * * * * * Though these, your happy births, have silent past More years than some abortive wits shall last; He still writes new, who once so well hath sung: That Muse can ne'er be old, which ne'er was young."

These verses are valuable as showing that Basse was living in 1651, and that he was then an aged man. The Emanuelian of the same name, who took his M.A. degree in 1636, might possibly be his son. At any rate, the latter was a poet. There are some of his pieces among the MSS. in the Public Library, Cambridge; and I have a small MS. volume of his rhymes, scarcely soaring above mediocrity, which was presented to me by an ancient family residing in Suffolk.

A poem by William Basse is inserted in the _Annalia Dubrensia_, 1636, in praise of Robert Dover and his revival of the Cotswold Games; but it is not clear to which of these poets we may ascribe it. Malone attributes two rare volumes to one or other of these poets. The first, a translation or paraphrase of Juvenal's tenth satire, entitled _That which seems Best is Worst_, 12mo., 1617; the second, "A Miscellany of Merriment," entitled _A Helpe to Discourse_, 2nd edit. 8vo., 1620: but the former is more probably the work of William Barkstead. I may mention that a copy of Basse's _Sword and Buckler, or Serving Man's Defence_, 1602, is among Malone's books in the Bodleian.

Izaac Walton speaks of William Basse, "one that hath made the choice songs of the _Hunter in His Career_, and of _Tom of Bedlam_, and many others of note." The ballad mentioned by MR. COLLIER, "Maister Basse his Career, or the Hunting of the Hare," is undoubtably the one alluded to by Walton. I may add, that it is printed in _Wit and Drollery_, edit. 1682. p. 64.; and also in _Old Ballads_, 1725, vol. iii. p. 196. The tune is contained in the _Shene MS._, a curious collection of old tunes in the Advocate's Library, Edinburgh; and a ballad entitled _Hubert's Ghost_, to the tune of _Basse's Carrier_, is preserved among the Bagford Collection of Old Ballads in the British Museum. With regard to the second ballad mentioned by Walton, our knowledge is not so perfect. Sir John Hawkins in a note (_Complete Angler_, 5th edit. p. 73.) says:--

"This song, beginning-- 'Forth from my dark and dismal cell,'