Chapter 4

Mr. F. F. Spenser published the results of his researches relative to Spenser in the _Gentleman's Magazine_ for August, 1842; and towards the end of his communication promised to record "many further interesting particulars," through the same medium, but failed to do so. Mr. Craik has made special reference to Mr. F. F. Spenser's paper in a little work upon which he must have bestowed a vast deal of labour, and which contains the completest investigation of all that has been discovered concerning the life, works, and descendants of the poet that I have met with: I refer to _Spenser and his Poetry_: by George L. Craik, M.A.: 3 vols. London, 1845. The appendix to vol. iii., devoted to an account of the descendants of Spenser, among other interesting matter, contains the history of the family descended from Sarah Spenser, a sister of Edmund Spenser, which is still represented. To which I may add that Spenser's own direct descendants are living in the city of Cork, and, I regret to say, in reduced circumstances. This should not be. A pension might well be bestowed on the descendants of Spenser, the only one of our four great poets whose posterity is not extinct.

J. M. B.

Tunbridge Wells.

I have read with much curiosity and surprise a paragraph engrafted into "N. & Q." (Vol. vii., p. 33.) from _The Times_ newspaper, June 16, 1841, announcing that a Mr. F. F. Spenser, of Halifax, had ascertained that the ancient residence of his own family, at Hurstwood, near Burnley, Lancashire, was the identical spot where the great Elizabethan poet, Edmund Spenser, is said to have retired, when driven by academical disappointments to his relations in the north of England.

I confess all this appears to me very like a hoax, there is such a weight of negative testimony against it. Dr. Whitaker, the learned historian of Whalley, describes Hurstwood Hall as a strong and well-built old house, bearing on its front, in large characters, the name of "Barnard Townley," its founder, and that it was for several descents the property and residence of a family branched out from the parent stock of Townley, in the person of John Townley, third son of Sir Richard Townley, of Townley--died Sept. 1562. His son, Barnard Townley, died 1602, and married Agnes, daughter and coheiress of George Ormeroyd, of Ormeroyd, who died 1586.

It must be remembered that Hurstwood is in the immediate neighbourhood of Dr. Whitaker's ancient patrimonial estate of Holme; and he must have been familiar with all the traditionary history of that locality. Yet he is silent on this subject, and does not allude either to the occasional residence of the poet Spenser in those parts, or to the family of Spensers, who are stated in this paragraph to have resided at Hurstwood about four hundred years.

CLIVIGEE.

* * * * *

LAMECH KILLING CAIN.

(Vol. vii., p. 305.)

Sir John Maundeville says:

"Also, seven miles from Nazareth is Mount Cain, under which is a well; and beside that well Lamech, Noah's father, slew Cain with an arrow. For this Cain went through briars and bushes, as a wild beast; and he had lived from the time of Adam, his father, unto the time of Noah; and so he lived nearly two thousand years. And Lamech was blind for old age."--_Travels_, chap. x., Bohn's _Early Travels in Palestine_, p. 186.

To which is appended the following note by Mr. Thomas Wright, the editor:

"This legend arose out of an interpretation given to Gen. iv. 23, 24. See, as an illustration, the scene in the _Coventry Mysteries_, pp. 44. 46.

ZEUS.

J. W. M. will find this question discussed at length in the _Dictionnaire de Bayle_, art. "Lamech," and more briefly in _Pol. Synopsis Criticorum_, Gen. iv. 23.

The subject has been engraved by Lasinio in his _Pitture a fresco del Campo Santo di Pisa_ (tom. xvii.), after the original fresco by Buonamico Buffalmacco, whose name is so familiar to readers of the _Decameron_.

F. C. B.

Bayle relates this legend in his account of Lamech as follows:

"There is a common tradition that Lamech, who had been a great lover of hunting, continued the sport even when, by reason of his great age, he was almost blind. He took with him his son, Tubal-Cain, who not only served him as a guide, but also directed him where and when he ought to shoot at the beast. One day, as Cain was hid among the thickets, Lamech's guide seeing something move in that place, gave him notice of it; whereupon Lamech shot an arrow, and slew Cain. He was extremely concerned at it, and beat his guide so much as to leave him dead upon the place."

One of the frescos of the Campo Santo at Pisa gives the whole subject, from the offering of Abel's and Cain's sacrifice, to the death of the young man {363} by the hand of Lamech, painted by Pietre da Orvieto about 1390. In one corner of the fresco, Cain is depicted as a wild and shaggy figure, crouched in a thicket, at which Lamech, at the suggestion of his guide, shoots an arrow. Below, the homicide is represented as murdering the cause of his error by blows on the head inflicted with his bow.

CHEVERELLS.

The following note upon the name of Lamech may perhaps serve to throw a little light upon the difficult passage in Genesis iv. 23, 24.--_Lamech_, in Celtic _Lamaich_, or _Laimaig_, means a slinger of stones; and Lamech being dextrous in the use of that weapon the sling, wantonly slew two young men, and boasted of the bloody deed to his two wives, Adah and Zillah, blasphemously maintaining that as Cain for one murder should be avenged sevenfold, so he, for his wanton act, would be avenged seventy and seven fold upon whoever should slay him. It may be considered strange that the name of Lamech should be Celtic, and that it should signify a slinger; but I am strengthened in my opinion by reference to the Hebrew alphabet, in which the letter _l_ is called _lamed_; but why it is so named the Hebrews cannot say. Now, if any one examines the Hebrew ¤lamed¤ he will perceive that it is by no means a rude representation of a human arm, holding a sling with a stone in it. The word _Lamech_ is derived from _lam_, the hand; and the termination signifies dexterity in shooting or discharging missiles therewith.

It is curious to notice that the remaining names in the passage of Scripture are Celtic: thus Cain is compounded of _cend_, first, and _gein_, offspring,--pronounced _Kayean_, _i. e._ first begotten. Adah means a fair complexioned, red-haired woman; and Zillah, peace, from _siotlad_, pronounced _shieta_.

FRANCIS CROSSLEY.

* * * * *

PHOTOGRAPHIC NOTES AND QUERIES.

_Photographic Notes._--G. H. P. has communicated (Vol. vii., p. 186.) a very excellent paper in reference to our numerous failures in the collodion process; but the remedies he proposes are not, as he is aware, infallible. He gives the recommendation you find in every work on the subject, viz. to lift the plate up and down in the bath to allow evaporation of ether. I have made experiments day after day to ascertain the value of this advice, and I am convinced, as far as my practice goes, that you gain nothing by it; indeed, I am sure that I much oftener get a more even film when the plate is left in the bath for about two minutes without lifting it out. I should be glad of other photographers' opinion on the point.

I have never found any benefit, but much the contrary, from re-dipping the plate in the bath; and I may observe the same of mixing a drop or two of silver solution with the developing fluid.

I think with G. H. P. that the developing solution should be weak for positives.

I omitted, in my description of a new head-rest, to say that it is better to have all the parts in metal; and that the hole, through which the arm runs, should be a square mortice instead of a round one, as is usual. A screw at the side sets it fast; the lower portion of the upright piece being round, and sliding up and down in a tube of metal, as it does in the best rests, allowing the sitter to be placed in different positions. All this is very difficult to describe, but a slight diagram would explain it easily, which I would willingly, as I have before said, send to any one thinking it worth writing to me for.

J. L. SISSON.

Edingthorpe Rectory.

_On some Difficulties in Photographic Practice._--Being desirous to have a glass bath for the silver, I was glad to find you had given (in "Notices to Correspondents") directions for making one, viz. two parts best red sealing-wax to one part of Jeffries' marine glue. I tried this, but found the application of it to the glass impossible, as it set immediately. Now, can you afford room for the means by which this may be remedied; as my wish to substitute glass for gutta percha remains?

Now I am addressing you, may I offer one or two hints which may be of service to beginners? If, after what has been considered a sufficient washing of the glass, after the hypo., during the drying, crystals from hypo. remaining appear, and which would most certainly destroy the picture, I have found that by _breathing well_ over these parts, and immediately repeating the washing, all ill effects are thoroughly prevented. To substitute hot water instead of breathing does not destroy the hyposulphite, and therefore will not do.

When the plate shall be dry after the washing process, if a leaden, dim, grey appearance occurs, I have found that by tenderly rubbing it with fine cotton, and applying with a good-sized camel's hair pencil a varnish of about 8-10ths spirits of turpentine and 2-10ths mastic varnish, and then, before this gets dry, putting on the black varnish, the grey effect will have been removed.

I have found the protonitrate of iron, as also the protosulphate, and not seldom the pyrogallic, so difficult of application, that I have stained and spoiled very good pictures. I have therefore used, and with perfect success, a tray of gutta percha a little longer than the glass (say one-fourth of an inch), and one-fourth of an inch deep; sliding from one end the glass into the tray (supplied immediately before using it), by which means the glass is all covered at once.

I think the REV. MR. SISSON'S suggestion, viz. to send you some of our specimens with collodion, {364} a very proper one, if not declined on your own part, and shall, for one, feel great pleasure in acting in accordance with it.

You will, I trust, pardon any foregoing hints for beginners, as I well know that I have lost several pictures by hypo-crystals, and very many by the difficulty in developing.

L. MERRITT.

Maidstone.

P.S.--I always find collodion by DR. DIAMOND'S formula capital, and with it from five to ten seconds is time enough.

_Mr. Weld Taylor's cheap Iodizing Process._--I have no doubt MR. WELD TAYLOR will be kind enough to explain to me two difficulties I find in his cheap iodizing process for paper.

In the first place, whence arises the caustic condition of his solution, unless it be through the decomposition of the cyanide of potassium which is sometimes added? and if such caustic condition exists, does it not cause a deposition of oxide of silver together with the iodide, thereby embrowning the paper?

Why does the caustic condition of the solution require a larger dose of nitrate of silver, and does not this larger quantity of nitrate of silver more than outbalance the difference between the new process and the old, as regards price? I pay 1s. 3d. for an ounce of iodide of potassium of purest quality; the commoner commercial quality is cheaper.

F. MAXWELL LYTE.

* * * * *

REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES.

_Somersetshire Ballad_ (Vol. vii., p. 236.).--

"Go vind the vicar of Taunton Deane," &c.

S. A. S. will find the above in _The Aviary, or Magazine of British Melody_, a square volume published about the middle of last century; or in a volume bearing the running title--_A Collection of diverting Songs, Airs, &c._, of about the same period--both extensive depôts of old song; the first containing 1344, and the last, as far as my mutilated copy goes, extending to nearly 500 pages quarto.

J. O.

_Family of De Thurnham_ (Vol. vii., p. 261.).--In reply to ~Theta~. I send a few notes illustrative of the pedigree, &c. of the De Thurnhams, lords of Thurnham, in Kent, deduced from Dugdale, public records, and MS. charters in my possession, namely, the MS. Rolls of Combwell Priory, which was founded by Robert de Thurnham the elder; from which it appears that Robert de Thurnham, who lived tempore Hen. II., had two sons, Robert and Stephen. Of these, Robert married Joan, daughter of William Fossard, and died 13 John, leaving a daughter and sole heir Isabel, for whose marriage Peter de Maulay had to pay 7000 marks, which were allowed him in his accounts for services rendered to the crown. Stephen, the other son, married Edelina, daughter of Ralph de Broc, and, dying circiter 16 John, was buried in Waverley Abbey, Surrey. He seems to have left five daughters and coheirs; viz. Mabilia, wife of Ralph de Gatton, and afterwards of Thomas de Bavelingeham; Alice, wife of Adam de Bending; Alianore, wife of Roger de Leybourne; Beatrice, wife of Ralph de Fay; and Alienore, wife of Ralph Fitz-Bernard. Dugdale and the Combwell Rolls speak of only four daughters, making no mention of the wife of Ralph Fitz-Bernard; but an entry on the Fine Rolls would seem almost necessarily to imply that she was one of the five daughters and coheiresses. If not a _daughter_, she was in _some way_ coheiress with the daughters; which is confirmed by an entry in _Testa de Nevill_: and, by a charter temp. Edw. I., I find Roger de Northwood, husband of Bona Fitz-Bernard, in possession of the manor of Thurnham, with every appearance of its having been by inheritance of his wife. With this explanation, I have ventured to include Alianore, wife of Ralph Fitz-Bernard, as among the daughters and coheiresses of Stephen de Thurnham. The issue of all of these marriages, after a few years, terminated in female representatives--among them the great infanta Juliana de Leybourne--mingling their blood with the Denes, Towns, Northwoods, Wattons, &c., and other ancient families of Kent.

I have two beautiful seals of Sir Stephen de Thurnham temp. John,--a knight fully caparisoned on horseback, but not a trace of armorial bearings on his shield; nor, in truth, could we expect to find any such assigned to him at that early period.

L. B. L.

_Major-General Lambert_ (Vol. vii., pp. 237. 269.).--Lambert did not survive his sentence more than twenty-one years. His trial took place in 1661, and he died during the hard winter of 1683.

The last fifteen years of his life were spent on the small fortified island of St. Nicholas, commonly called Drake's Island, situated in Plymouth Sound, at the entrance to the Hamoaze.

Lambert's wife and two of his daughters were with him on this island in 1673. (See "N. & Q.," Vols. iv. and v.)

J. LEWELYN CURTIS.

_Loggerheads_ (Vol. v., p. 338.; and Vol. vii., pp. 192-3.).--Your correspondent CAMBRENSIS, whose communication on this subject I have read with much interest, will excuse my correcting him in one or two minor points of his narrative. The little wayside inn at Llanverres, rendered famous by the genius of the painter Wilson, is still standing in its original position, on the _left_-hand of the road as you pass through that village to Ruthin. Woodward, who was landlord of the inn at the time Wilson frequented it, survived his friend about {365} sixteen years, leaving six children (two sons and four daughters), none of whom however, as CAMBRENSIS surmises, succeeded him as landlord. His widow shortly afterwards married Edward Griffiths, a man many years her Junior, and who, at the period CAMBRENSIS alludes to, and for a lone time previous, was "mine host" of the "Loggerheads." Griffiths died about three years ago, after amassing a large property by mining speculations in the neighbourhood. There are, I believe, several fine paintings by Wilson in the new hall of Colomendy, now the residence of the relict of Col. Garnons. The old house, where Wilson lived, was taken down about thirty years ago, to make way for the present structure.

T. HUGHES.

Chester.

_Grafts and the Parent Tree_ (Vol. vii., p. 261.).--In reply to J. P. of this town, I beg to say that the belief, that "the graft perishes when the parent tree decays," is merely one among a host of superstitions reverently cherished by florists. The fact is, that grafts, after some fifteen years, wear themselves out. Of course there cannot be wanting many examples of the almost synchronous demise of parent and graft. From such cases, no doubt, the myth in question took its rise.

C. MANSFIELD INGLEBY.

Birmingham.

_The Lisle Family_ (Vol. vii., pp. 236. 269.).--MR. GARLAND'S Query has induced me to inquire, through the same channel, whether anything is known about a family of this name, some of whom are buried at Thruxton in Hampshire. There are four monuments in the church, two of which are certainly, the others probably, erected to members of the family. The first is a very fine brass (described in the Oxford _Catalogue of Brasses_), inscribed to Sir John Lisle, Lord of Boddington in the Isle of Wight, who died A.D. 1407. The next in date, and I suppose of much the same period, is an altar-tomb under an arch, which seems to have led into a small chantry. On this there are no arms, and no inscription. The tomb is now surmounted by the figure of a Crusader, which once lay outside the church, and is thought to be one of the Lisles, and the founder of the original church. On the north side of the

chancel two arches looked into what was once a chantry chapel. In the eastern arch is an altar-tomb, once adorned with shields, which are now torn off. This chantry stood within the memory of "the oldest inhabitant;" but it was pulled down by the owner of the land appertaining to the chantry, and of its materials was built the church tower. One of its windows forms the tower window, and its battlements and pinnacles serve their old purpose in their new position. A modern vestry occupies part of the site of the chantry, and shows one side the altar-tomb I have last mentioned. This side has been refaced in Jacobian style, and the arms of Lisle and Courtenay, and one other coat (the same which occur on the brass), form part of the decoration. Two figures belonging to this later work lie now on the altar-tomb, and many more are remembered to have existed inside the chantry. The mixture of this late Jacobian work with the old work of the chantry is very curious, and can be traced all over what remains of it. The initials T. L. appear on shields under the tower battlements.

I should be glad to find that these Lisles would throw any light on the subject of MR. GARLAND'S inquiry; and if they do not, perhaps some of your readers can give some information about them.

The coat of arms of this family is--Or, on a chief gules, three lioncels rampant of the first.

R. H. C.

_The Dodo in Ceylon_ (Vol. vii., p. 188.).--The bird which SIR J. EMERSON TENNENT identifies with the dodo is common on Ceylonese sculpture. The natives say it is now extinct, and call it the _Hangsiya_, or sacred goose; but whether deemed sacred for the same reason as the Capitoline goose, or otherwise, I must leave the author of _Eleven Years in Ceylon_ to explain, he being the person in this country most conversant with Ceylonese mythology.

I now wish to call SIR EMERSON'S attention to a coincidence that may be worthy his notice in connexion with his forthcoming work on Ceylon.

If he will take the trouble to examine the model of the Parthenon, in the Elgin Marble room of the British Museum, he cannot fail, to be struck with its resemblance to the beautiful building he visited at Polonaroowa, called the Jaitoowanarama. The dimensions of the respective buildings I cannot at present ascertain; but the ground-plans are precisely similar, and each was roofless. But the most striking resemblance is in the position and altitude of the statues: that of the gigantic Bhoodho is precisely similar, even in the posture of the right arm and hand, to that of Minerva, the masterpiece of Phidias. On consulting his notes, he may find the height of the statues to correspond. That of Phidias was thirty-nine feet.

OL. MEM. JU.

Glen Tulchan.

_Thomas Watson, Bishop of St. David's, 1687-99_ (Vol. vii., p. 234.).--This harshly-treated prelate died at Great Wilbraham, near Cambridge, on June 3, 1717, æt. eighty years; and, from a private letter written at the time, seems to have been buried in haste in the chancel of that church, "but without any service," which may perhaps imply that there was not a funeral sermon, and the ordinary ceremony at a prelate's burial. It is, however, {366} intimated that he died excommunicated. In Paulson's _History of Holderness_ is a notice of Bishop Watson, and of his relatives the Medleys, who are connected with my family by marriage; but the statement that the bishop "died in the Tower" is incorrect (vol. i. Part II. p. 283.; vol. ii. Part I. p. 47.; Part II. p. 542., 4to., 1840-1).

F. R. R.

Milnrow Parsonage.

He died in retirement at Wilburgham, or Wilbraham, in the county of Cambridge, June 3, 1717, ætat. eighty.--See Gough's _Camden_, vol. ii. p. 140., and _Gentleman's Magazine_, vols. lix. and lx.

Bishop Gobat was born in 1799, at Cremine, in the perish of Grandval, in Switzerland. His name is not to be found in the list of graduates of either Oxford or Cambridge. His degree of D. D. was probably bestowed on him by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

TYRO.

Dublin.

_Etymology of Fuss_ (Vol. vii., p. 180.).--

"FUSS, _n. s._, a low, cant word, Dr. Johnson says. It is, however, a regularly-descended northern word: Sax. >fus<, prompt, eager; Su. Goth. and Cimbr. _f u s_, the same; hence the Sax. >fysan<, to hasten, and the Su. Goth. _f y s a_, the same."--Todd's _Johnson_.

Richardson gives the same etymology, referring to Somner. Webster says, "allied, perhaps, to Gr. ~physaô~, to blow or puff."

ZEUS.

A reference to the word in Todd's _Johnson's Dictionary_ will show, and I think satisfactorily, that its origin is _fus_ (Anglo-Saxon), prompt or eager; hence _fysan_, to hasten. The quotation given is from Swift.

C. I. R.

_Palindromical Lines_ (Vol. vii., p. 178.).--The sotadic inscription,

"~NIPSON ANOMÊMA MÊ MONAN OPSIN~,"

is stated (_Gentleman's Magazine_, vol. xl. p. 617.) to be on a font at Sandbach in Cheshire, and (_Gentleman's Magazine_, vol. lxiii. p. 441.) to be on the font at Dulwich in Surrey, and also on the font at Harlow in Essex.

ZEUS.

_Nugget_ (Vol. vi., pp. 171. 281.; Vol. vii., pp. 143. 272.).--FURVUS is persuaded that the word _nugget_ is of home growth, and has sprung from a root existing under various forms throughout the dialects at present in use. The radical appears to be _snag_, _knag_, or _nag_ (_Knoge_, Cordylus, cf. _Knuckle_), a protuberance, knot, lump; being a term chiefly applied to knots in trees, rough pieces of wood, &c., and in its derivatives strongly expressive of (so to speak) misshapen _lumpiness_.

Every one resident in the midland counties must be acquainted with the word _nog_, applied to the wooden ball used in the game of "shinney," the corresponding term of which, _nacket_, holds in parts of Scotland, where also a short, corpulent person is called a _nuget_.

So, in Essex, _nig_ signifies a piece; a _snag_ is a well-known word across the Atlantic; _nogs_ are ninepins in the north of England; a _noggin_ of bread is equivalent to a _hunch_ in the midland counties; and in the neighbourhood of the Parret and Exe the word becomes _nug_, bearing (besides its usual acceptation) the meaning of _knot_, _lump_.