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. 170.] SATURDAY, JANUARY 29. 1853 [Price Fourpence. Stamped Edition 5d.
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CONTENTS.
NOTES:-- Page
Robertson's "Index of Charters" 101
Cowper or Cooper, by George Daniel 102
Yankee, its Origin and Meaning, by Dr. William Bell 103
Shakspeare's Bedside, or the Doctors enumerated: a new Ballad, by James Cornish 104
FOLK LORE:--Cures for the Hooping Cough: Rubus fruticosus, Gryphea incurva, Donkey 104
MINOR NOTES:--Epitaphs--Nostradamus on the Gold-diggings-- Whimsical Bequest--The Orkneys in Pawn--Lord Duff's Toast 105
QUERIES:--
The Meteoric Stone of the Thracian Chersonesus, by W. S. Gibson 105
Banbury Cakes and Zeal 106
MINOR QUERIES:--Richardson or Murphy--Legend attached to Creeper in the Samoan Isles--Shearman Family--American Fisheries--Grindle--A Gentleman executed for whipping a Slave to Death--Brydone--"Clear the Decks for Bognie's Carriage"--London Queries--Scarf worn by Clergyman--Life of Queen Anne--Erasmus Smith--Croxton or Crostin of Lancashire--Grub Street Journal--Chaplain to the Princess Elizabeth--"The Snow-flake" 107
MINOR QUERIES WITH ANSWERS:--Leamhuil or Lahoel--Orte's Maps, Edition of 1570--Prayer for the Recovery of George III. 108
REPLIES:--
Mrs. Mackey's Poems 109
Map of Ceylon, by Sir J. Emerson Tennent 110
"Am, have, and will be:" Henry VIII., Act III. Sc. 2. 111
Sir Henry Wotton's Letter to Milton 111
Skull-caps _versus_ Skull-cups, by Thomas Lawrence 112
Inedited Poem by Pope 113
Cibber's "Lives of the Poets," by W. L. Nichols 113
English Comedians in the Netherlands 114
La Bruyère, by J. Sansom 114
Southey's Criticism upon St. Mathias' Day in Leap-year 115
PHOTOGRAPHIC NOTES AND QUERIES:--Portable Camera for Travellers--The Albumen Process--Black Tints of French Photographers--Originator of the Collodion Process-- Developing Paper Pictures with Pyrogallic Acid 116
REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES:--Waterloo--Irish Peerages-- Martha Blount--Quotations wanted--Pepys's Morena-- Goldsmiths' Year-marks--Turner's View of Lambeth Palace--"For God will be your King to-day"--Jennings Family--The Furze or Gorse in Scandinavia--Mistletoe-- Inscription on a Dagger--Steevens--"Life is like a Game of Tables," &c. 117
MISCELLANEOUS:--
Notes on Books, &c. 120
Books and Odd Volumes wanted 120
Notices to Correspondents 121
Advertisements 121
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Notes.
ROBERTSON'S "INDEX OF CHARTERS."
This work, so often quoted, is familiar to every antiquary; but as the name of the intelligent and laborious editor does not appear in any of our biographical dictionaries, a short sketch may not be unacceptable to our readers.
William Robertson was born at Fordyce, in the county of Banff, in the year 1740. Having gone through the usual course of elementary instruction in reading and writing, he entered the Latin class at the grammar school of his native parish; a seminary then, as now, of great celebrity in the North of Scotland. Among his schoolfellows he contracted a particular intimacy with Mr. George Chalmers, afterwards Secretary of the Board of Trade; so well known by many elaborate and valuable commercial, historical, and biographical publications. The connexion between the schoolboys, originating in a similarity of taste and pursuits, was strengthened at a subsequent period of their lives by the contributions of the intelligent Deputy Keeper of the Records of Scotland to the local and historical information of the author of _Caledonia_, so honourably recorded in that national work. He completed his academical studies at King's College, Aberdeen, where he was particularly distinguished by his proficiency in the Greek language, under Professor Leslie. He was then apprenticed to Mr. Turner of Turnerhall, advocate in Aberdeen; but had been little more than a year in that situation, when Mr. Burnett of Monboddo applied to Professor Leslie to recommend to him as his second clerk a young man who had a competent knowledge of the Greek language, and properly qualified to aid him in his literary pursuits. The Professor immediately mentioned young Robertson; and Mr. Turner, in the most handsome manner, cancelled his articles of apprenticeship. During his connexion with Mr. Burnett, he accompanied him in several visits to France, on taking evidence as one of the counsel in the great Douglas cause. On his first visit there, he went with him to see the savage girl, who, at that time, was creating a great sensation in Paris; and, at his request, made a translation {102} of M. Condamines' account of her, to which Mr. Burnett wrote a preface. In the year 1766 he was appointed Chamberlain to James, Earl of Findlater and Seafield, on the recommendation of Lord Monboddo. In 1768 he published, at Edinburgh, _The History of Greece, from the Earliest Times till it became a Roman Province_, being a concise and particular account of the civil government, religion, literature, and military affairs of the states of Greece, for the use of seminaries of education, and the general reader, in 1 vol. 12mo. At this period, having caught a portion of the jealous nationality of the multitude, he published a political _jeu d'esprit_ entitled _A North Briton Extraordinary_, by a young Scotsman in the Corsican service, 4to., 1769: designed to repel the illiberal invectives of Mr. Wilkes against the people of Scotland. Some of the popular objections to the Union reiterated by the young Scotsman having been found in the characteristic discussion between Lieutenant Lesmahagon and Matthew Bramble on the same subject, in _The Expedition of Humphrey Clinker_, the authorship was on that account erroneously attributed to Dr. Smollet, who had then discontinued an unsuccessful opposition to Mr. Wilkes in the _The Briton_.
In 1773 Mr. Robertson married Miss Donald, only child of Captain Alexander Donald, of the 89th, or Gordon Highlanders. In the year 1777 he received his commission from Lord Frederick Campbell, the Lord Clerk Register of Scotland, as colleague of his brother, Mr. Alexander Robertson, who had been appointed one of the Deputy Keepers of the Records of Scotland some years before. He was now in a situation completely suited to his wishes, and entered on the duties of his office with the utmost enthusiasm. It very early occurred to him, that many ancient records of Scotland, which had been removed by Edward I., might still be recovered; and he suggested to Lord Frederick Campbell, who was as enthusiastic as himself in everything tending to throw light on the early history of Scotland, that searches ought to be made in the State Paper Office in London for the purpose of ascertaining whether some of the earlier records might yet be found. Lord Frederick Campbell entered warmly into his views, and the success with which the search was made may be ascertained by consulting the Preface to the _Index of Charters_.
The Reports to the Parliamentary Commissioners appointed to inquire into the state of the records, with the suggestions made by him, and which have been so ably followed up since his death by the late Thomas Thomson, Esq., Deputy Clerk Register, were considered of such importance as to merit a vote of thanks of the Select Committee, which was transmitted to him along with a very friendly letter from Mr. Abbot, then Speaker of the House of Commons, afterwards Lord Colchester. He commenced the laborious work of printing _The Records of the Parliament of Scotland_, in which he made considerable progress, having, previous to his death, completed one very large folio volume.
Between the years 1780 and 1790, in consequence of a strict investigation into the validity of the claims of several persons to peerages in Scotland, Mr. Robertson was much employed in inquiring into the state of the peerage, both by those who made and those who rejected such claims. This circumstance naturally led him to a minute acquaintance with the subject; and induced him to publish, in 1794, a quarto volume, entitled _Proceedings relative to the Peerage of Scotland from 16th January, 1707, to 20th April, 1788_: a work which has been found of the greatest service in conducting the elections of the representative peers of Scotland.
In 1798, at the request of Lord Frederick Campbell, he published an--
"Index, drawn up in the Year 1629, of many Records of Charters granted by the different Sovereigns of Scotland, between 1309 and 1413 (which had been discovered by Mr. Astle in the British Museum), most of which Records have been long missing; with an Introduction, giving a State, founded upon Authentic Documents still preserved, of the Ancient Records of Scotland, which were in that Kingdom in 1292."
The object of this publication was to endeavour to recover many ancient records, which there was much reason to believe were still in existence. The labour which he underwent in preparing this volume for the press, and in transcribing a very ancient quarto manuscript, written on vellum, which was found in the State Paper Office, was very great. Every word of this ancient vellum MS. he copied with his own hand, and it is printed along with the volume of the _Records of the Parliament of Scotland_. The preface, introduction, notes, and appendix to the _Index of Charters_, show, not only the great labour which this work required from him, but the extensive information also, on the subject of the ancient history of Scotland, which he possessed.
At a general meeting of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, held Jan. 28, 1799, he was elected a member, and placed in the literary class of the Society. He died March 4, 1803, at his house, St. Andrew's Square, Edinburgh, in the sixty-third year of his age.
ELGINENSIS.
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COWPER, OR COOPER.
In the midsummer holidays of 1799, being on a visit to an old and opulent family of the name of Deverell, in Dereham, Norfolk, I was taken to the house of an ancient lady (a member of the aforesaid family), to pay my respects to her, and to drink {103} tea. Two visitors were _particularly_ expected. They soon arrived. The first, if I remember rightly (for my whole attention was singularly riveted to the _second_), was a pleasant-looking, lively young man--very talkative and entertaining; his companion was above the middle height, broadly made, but not stout, and advanced in years. His countenance had a peculiar charm, that I could not resist. It alternately exhibited a deep sadness, a thoughtful repose, a fearful and an intellectual fire, that surprised and held me captive. His manner was embarrassed and reserved. He spoke but little. Yet _once_ he was roused to animation; then his voice was full and clear. I have a faint recollection that I saw his face lighted up with a momentary smile. His hostess kindly welcomed him as "Mr. Cooper." After tea, we walked for a while in the garden. I kept close to his side, and once he addressed me as "My little master." I returned to school; but that variable, expressive, and interesting countenance I did not forget. In after years, standing, as was my wont, before the shop windows of the London booksellers (I have not _quite_ left off this old habit!), reading the title-pages of tomes that I intensely longed, but had not then the money, to purchase, I recognised at a shop in St. Paul's Churchyard that well-remembered face, prefixed to a volume of poems, "written by William Cowper, of the Inner Temple, Esq." The _cap_ (for when I saw "Mr. Cooper" he wore a wig, or his hair, for his age, was unusually luxuriant) was the only thing that puzzled me. To make "assurance doubly sure," I hastened to the house of a near relation hard by, and I soon learnt that "Mr. Cooper" was William Cowper. The welcome present of a few shillings put me in _immediate_ possession of the coveted volumes. I will only just add, that I read, and re-read them; that the man whom, in my early boyhood, I had so mysteriously reverenced, in my youth I deeply and devotedly admired and loved! Many, many years have since passed away: but that reverence, that admiration, and that love have experienced neither diminution nor change.
It was something, said Washington Irving, to have seen even the _dust_ of Shakspeare. It is something too, good Mr. Editor, to have beheld the face and to have heard the voice of Cowper.
GEORGE DANIEL.
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YANKEE, ITS ORIGIN AND MEANING.
The meaning of the term _Yankee_, which our transatlantic brethren now willingly adopt as their collective name, has acquired more notoriety than it deserved from the unlucky and far-fetched derivations which it has received in so many different publications. The term is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and of home-growth. We all know, from the veritable Diedricht Knickerbocker's _History of New York_, that its earliest settlers were exclusively Dutchmen, who naturally named it, though from anything but similarity in local situation, New Amsterdam. We may, of course, suppose that in the multitude of these Dutch settlers the names they carried over would be pretty nearly in the same proportion as at home. Both then and now the Dutch _Jan_ (the _a_ sounded very broad and long), abbreviated from the German _Johann_, our _John_, was the prevailing Christian appellative; and it even furnished, in _Jansen_, &c. (like our _Johnson_), frequent patronymics, particularly with the favourite diminutive _cke_, _Jancke_: and so common does it still remain as such, that it would be difficult to open the Directory of any decent-sized Dutch or Northern German town without finding numerous instances, as _Jancke_, _Jaancke_, _Jahncke_, &c., according as custom has settled the orthography in each family. It is scarcely necessary to say that the soft _J_ is frequently rendered by _Y_ in our English reading and speaking foreign words (as the Scandinavian and German _Jule_ becomes our _Yule_), to show how easily and naturally the above names were transformed into _Yahnkee_. So much for the name as an appellative; now for its appropriation as a generic. The prominent names of individuals are frequently seized upon by the vulgar as a designation of the people or party in which it most prevails. We have _Paddies_ for Irishmen, _Taffies_ for Welshmen, and _Sawnies_ (abbreviated _Alexander_) for our Scotch brethren: so, therefore, when English interests gained the upper hand, and the name of _New Amsterdam_ succumbed to that of _New York_, the fresh comers, the English settlers, seized upon the most prominent name by which to designate its former masters, which extended to the whole of North America, as far as Canada: and the addition of _doodle_, twin brother to _noodle_, was intended to mark more strongly the contempt and mockery by the dominant party; just as a _Sawney_ is, in most of the northern counties, a term next door to a fool. It is, however, to the credit of our transatlantic brethren, and the best sign of their practical good sense, that they have turned the tables on the innuendo, and by adopting, carried the term into repute by sheer resolution and determinate perseverance.
The term _slave_ is only the misappropriation, by malevolent neighbours, of the Slavonic term _slaus_ or _laus_, so frequent in the proper names of that people; _Ladislaus_, _Stanislaus_, _Wratislaus_, &c., meaning, in their vernacular tongue, glory or praise, like the Latin _laus_, with which it is no doubt cognate: and so _servi_ and _servants_ is but a derivative from the _Serbs_, _Sorbs_, or _Servians_, whose glorious feats in arms against their Turkish oppressors have proved that there is nothing _servile_ in their character.
WILLIAM BELL, Phil. Dr.
17. Gower Place, Euston Square.
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SHAKSPEARE'S BEDSIDE, OR THE DOCTORS ENUMERATED.--A NEW BALLAD.
On looking over a collection of MSS. which has lain untouched for many years, I have lighted on the accompanying ballad. Of its source I know nothing; nor do I recollect how it fell into my hands. I have never seen it in print. The author, fancifully enough, imagines the various editions of Shakspeare brought in succession to the sick-bed of the immortal bard, and has curiously detailed the result of their several prescriptions.
If you do me the favour of giving it insertion in your valuable "N. & Q." I shall feel obliged; and I think that your numerous Shakspeare correspondents, to some of whom it may be unknown, will not be displeased at seeing it in the columns of your interesting journal. The editorial period to which the ballad is brought down will tolerably fix its date:
Old Shakspeare was sick--for a doctor he sent-- But 'twas long before any one came; Yet at length his assistance Nic Row did present; Sure all men have heard of his name.
As he found that the poet had tumbled his bed; He smooth'd it as well as he could; He gave him an anodyne, comb'd out his head, But did his complaint little good.
Doctor Pope to incision at once did proceed, And the Bard for the simples he cut; For his regular practice was always to bleed, Ere the fees in his pocket he put.
Next Theobald advanced, who at best was a quack, And dealt but in old women's stuff; Yet he caused the physician of Twick'nam to pack, And the patient grew cheerful enough.
Next Hanmer, who fees ne'er descended to crave, In gloves lily-white did advance; To the Poet the gentlest of purges he gave, And, for exercise, taught him to dance.
One Warburton, then, tho' allied to the Church, Produced his alterative stores; But his med'cines the case so oft left in the lurch That Edwards[1] kick'd him out of doors.
Next Johnson arrived to the patient's relief, And ten years he had him in hand; But, tired of his task, 'tis the gen'ral belief, He left him before he could stand.
Now Capel drew near, not a Quaker more prim, And number'd each hair in his pate; By styptics, call'd stops, he contracted each limb, And crippled for ever his gait.
From Gopsal then strutted a formal old goose, And he'd cure him by inches, he swore; But when the poor Poet had taken one dose, He vow'd he would swallow no more.
But Johnson, determined to save him or kill, A second prescription display'd; And, that none might find fault with his drop or his pill, Fresh doctors he call'd to his aid.
First, Steevens came loaded with black-letter books, Of fame more desirous than pelf; Such reading, observers might read in his looks, As no one e'er read but himself.
Then Warner, by Plautus and Glossary known, And Hawkins, historian of sound[2]; Then Warton and Collins together came on, For Greek and potatoes renown'd.
With songs on his pontificalibus pinn'd, Next, Percy the Great did appear; And Farmer, who twice in a pamphlet had sinn'd, Brought up the empirical rear.
"The cooks the more num'rous the worse is the broth," Says a proverb I well can believe; And yet to condemn them untried I am loth, So at present shall laugh in my sleeve. RIGDUM FUNNIDOS.
JAMES CORNISH.
Falmouth.
[Footnote 1: One Edwards, an apothecary, who seems to have known [more] of the poet's case than some of the regular physicians who undertook to cure him.]
[Footnote 2: From the abilities and application of Sir J. Hawkins, the publick is now furnished with a compleat history of the science of musick.]
[This ballad originally appeared in the _Gentleman's Mag._ for 1797, p. 912.; and at p. 1108. of the same volume will be found the following reply:
"ANSWER TO SHAKSPEARE'S BED-SIDE; OR, THE DOCTORS ENUMERATED.
How could you assert, when the Poet was sick, None hit off a method of cure; When Montagu's pen, like a magical stick, His health did for ever ensure?"]
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FOLK LORE.
_Cures for the Hooping Cough (Rubus fruticosus)._--The following is said to prevail in the counties of Warwick, Worcester, and Stafford, as a remedy for this harrowing disorder in children: that if a child is put to walk beneath a common bramble (_Rubus fruticosus_), having rooted in the ground at both extremities (which may be very commonly met with where they grow luxuriantly), a certain number of times, a perfect cure would be the result.
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_Gryphea incurva._--In the course of conversation with an old man in the county of Warwick, relative to ancient customs, he related to me as a fact within his own knowledge, that the pretty round stone shell, as he termed it (picking one up at the same time), a specimen of the _Gryphea incurva_, or Devil's Thumb, as it is frequently called, which is found in considerable quantities in the gravel beds of that county, when prepared in a certain manner--calcined, I believe--is a certain specific for this complaint in its most obstinate form. Indeed, he related to me some very extraordinary cures which he had himself witnessed.
_Donkey._--A certain number of hairs taken from the black cross on the shoulders of a donkey, and put into a small bag made of black silk, and worn round a child's neck afflicted with the complaint, is a never-failing remedy.
T. B. WHITBORNE.
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Minor Notes.
_Epitaph_ in Tynemouth churchyard:
"Wha lies here? Pate Watt, gin ye speer. Poor Pate! is that thou? Ay, by my soul, is't; But I's dead now."
J. MN.
_Epitaph_ composed by an old gardener at Ilderton, Northumberland, for his own tombstone:
"Under this stone lies Bobbity John, Who, when alive, to the world was a wonder; And would have been so yet, had not Death in a fit Cut his soul and his body asunder."
J. MN.
_Nostradamus on the Gold-diggings._--Nostradamus (physician to Henry II. of France) has the following among his prophecies (p. 33.):
"Las, qu'on verra grand peuple tourmenté Et la loy sainte en totale ruine, Par autres Loix toute la Christianité, Quand d'or, d'argent trouve nouvelle mine."
Garencières translates thus:
"Alas! how a great people shall be tormented, And the holy law in an utter ruin; By other laws all christendom be troubled, When new mines of gold and silver shall be found."
AGRICOLA DE MONTE.
_Whimsical Bequest._--Is the following cutting from the _Ipswich Journal_ of January 8th, 1853, worth preserving in your pages?