Chapter 4

Following the plan of Mr. Baker, the anonymous author of _The Hanover Rat_ tells us, that, after thirty years' laborious research, he had {482} satisfied himself that this animal was not a native of these islands: "I cannot," he says, "particularly mark the date of its first appearance, yet I think it is within the memory of man;" and finding favour in its original _mine affamée_ state with a few of the most starved and hungry of the English rats from the common sewer, he proceeds to show that it _did_ extirpate the natives; but whether this is the best account, or whether the facts of the case as here set forth will satisfy your correspondent, is another thing. According to _my_ authority, the aboriginal rat was, at the period of writing, sorely put to it to maintain his ground against the invading colonists and their unnatural allies the _providers_; and the present work seems to have been an effort on the part of one in the interest of the former to awaken them to a sense of their danger. In his laudable attempts to rally their courage, this advocate reminds them of a similar crisis when their country was infested with a species of frog called _Dutch frogs_: "which no sooner," says he, "began to be mischievous, than its growth and progress was stopped by the natives." "Had we," he continues, "but the same public spirit with our ancestors, we need not complain to-day of being eaten up by _rats_. Our country is the same, but alas! we feel no more the same affection for it." In this way he stimulates the invaded to a combined attack upon the common enemy, and we need not tell _our_ readers how successfully, nor how desperate the struggle, the very next year; which ended in the complete ascendancy of the _Hanover rat_, or reigning family, over the unlucky Jacobite native. Under his figure of a rat, this Jacobite is very scurrilous indeed upon the Hanoverian succession; and, continuing his _polypian_ imitations, relates a few coarse experiments upon _his subject_ illustrative of its destructive properties, voracity, and sagacity, which set at nought "all the contrivances of the farmer to defend his barns; the trailer his warehouse; the gentleman his land; or the inferior people their cup-boards and small beer cellars. No bars or bolts can keep them out, nor can any gin or trap lay hold of them."

Luckily for us living in these latter days, we can extract amusement from topics of this nature, which would have subjected our forefathers to severe pains and penalties; and looking at the character and mischievous tendency of _The Hanover Rat_, I am curious to know if Mary Cooper, the publisher, was put under surveillance for her share in its production; for to me it appears a more aggravated libel upon the reigning family than that of the _Norfolk Prophecy_--for the publication of which, Boswell says, the great Samuel Johnson had to play at hide and seek with the officers of justice.

The advent of both Pretenders was preceded by _straws_ like these cast out by their adherents, to try _how the current set_. The present _jeu d'esprit_, however, is a double-shotted one: for, not content with tampering with the public allegiance, this aboriginal rat seems more innocently enjoying a laugh at the Royal Society, and its ingenious _fellow_ Mr. Baker, in as far as regards the aforesaid elaborate treatise upon _polypes_.

J. O.

* * * * *

FONT INSCRIPTIONS.

(Vol. vii., p. 408.)

MR. ELLACOMBE desires examples of these. I can supply the following:--

At Bradley, Lincolnshire, is a very large font, of the Decorated period, with this inscription round the bowl in black letter:

"Pater Noster, Ave Maria, and Criede, leren ye chyld yt es nede."

This is an early instance of the use of _English_ for inscriptions. The sketch was engraved in the work on _Baptismal Fonts_.

At Threckingham, Lincolnshire, I believe I succeeded in deciphering an inscription round the font, which was said to have been previously studied in vain. It is somewhat defaced; but in all probability the words are,--

"Ave Maria gracia p... d... t..."

_i. e._ of course, "plena, dominus tecum." The bowl of the font is Early English; but the base, round which the inscription runs, appears to be of the fifteenth century.

At Burgate, Suffolk, an inscription in black letter is incised on the upper step of the font:

"[Orate pro an--b'] Will'mi Burgate militis et d[=n]e Elionore uxoris eius qui istum fontem fieri fecerunt."

Sir William Burgate died in 1409. It is engraved in the _Proceedings of the Bury and West Suffolk Archæological Institute_.

At Caistor, by Norwich:

"Orate pro animab ... liis ... ici de Castre."

At Walsoken, Norfolk:

"Remember the soul of S. Honyter and Margaret his wife, and John Beforth, Chaplain."

with the date 1544.

At Gaywood, Norfolk, is a font of Gothic design, lust probably of post-Reformation date. On four of the eight sides of the bowl are these inscriptions:

"QVI . CREDIDE "VOCE . PATER RIT . ET . BAPTI NATUS . CORPORE ZATVS . FVERIT FLAMEN . AVE. SALVVS . ERIT." MAT. 3."

"CHRISTVM . IN "I . AM . THY . GOD DVISTIS . QVOT AND . THE . GOD QVOT . BAPTI OF . THY . SEEDE. ZATI . ESTIS." GEN."

{483}

At Tilney, All Saints, Norfolk, is an inscribed font so similar to the one last mentioned that they are probably the works of the same designer.

On the _cover_ of the font at Southacre, Norfolk, is this inscription:

"Orate p. aia. M[=r]i. Ri[=c]i. Gotts et d[=n]i Galfridi baker, Rectoris huj' [eccl[=i]e qui hoc] opus fieri fece^t."

I may take the opportunity of adding two _pulpit_ inscriptions; one at Utterby, Lincolnshire, on the sounding-board:

"Quoties conscendo animo contimesco."

The other at Swarby, in the same county:

"O God my Saviour be my sped, To preach thy word, men's soulls to fed."

C. R. M.

* * * * *

IRISH RHYMES--ENGLISH PROVINCIALISMS--LOWLAND SCOTCH.

(Vol. vi., pp. 605, 606.)

MR. BEDE, who first called attention to a class of rhymes which he denominated "Irish," seems to take it ill that I have dealt with his observations as somewhat "hypercritical." I acknowledge the justness of his criticism; but I did, and must still, demur to the propriety of calling certain false rhymes peculiarly _Irish_, when I am able to produce similes from poets of celebrity, who cannot stand excused by MR. BEDE'S explanation, that the rhymes in question "made music for their Irish ear." If, as he tells us, MR. BEDE was not "blind to similar imperfections in English poets," I am yet to learn why he should fix on "Swift's Irishisms," and call those errors a national peculiarity, when he finds them so freely scattered through the standard poetry of England?

Your correspondent J. H. T. suggests a new direction for inquiry on this subject when he conjectures that the pronunciation now called _Irish_ was, "during the first half of the eighteenth century, the received pronunciation of the most correct speakers of the day;" and MR. BEDE himself suggests that _provincialisms_ may sometimes modify the rhymes of even so correct a versifier as Tennyson. I hope some of your contributors will have "drunk so deep of the well of English undefiled" as to be competent to address themselves to this point of inquiry. I cannot pretend to do much, being but a shallow philologist; yet, since I received your last Number, I have lighted on a passage in that volume of "omnifarious information" Croker's _Boswell_, which will not be deemed inapplicable.

Boswell, during a sojourn at Lichfield in 1776, expressed a doubt as to the correctness of Johnson's eulogy on his townsmen, as "speaking the purest English," and instanced several provincial sounds, such as _there_ pronounced like _fear_, _once_ like _woonse_. On this passage are a succession of notes: Burney observes, that "David Garrick always said _shupreme, shuperior_." Malone's note brings the case in point to ours when he says, "This is still the vulgar pronunciation in Ireland; the pronunciation in Ireland is doubtless that which generally prevailed in England in the time of Queen Elizabeth." And Mr. Croker sums up the case thus:

"No doubt the English settlers carried over, and may have in some cases preserved, the English idiom and accent of their day. Bishop Kearny, as well as his friend Mr. Malone, thought that the most remarkable peculiarity of Irish pronunciation, as in _say_ for _sea_, _tay_ for _tea_, was _the English mode, even down to the reign of Queen Anne_; and there are rhymes in Pope, and more frequently in Dryden, that countenance that opinion. But rhymes cannot be depended upon for minute identity of sound."--Croker's _Notes_, A.D. 1776.

If this explanation be adopted, it will account for the examples I have been furnishing, and others which I find even among the harmonious rhymes of Spenser (he might, however, have caught the brogue in Ireland); yet am I free to own that to me popular pronunciation scarcely justifies the committing to paper such loose rhymes as ought to grate on that fineness of ear which is an essential faculty in the true poet; "here or awa'," in England or Ireland, I continue to set them down to "slip-slop composition."

It may not be inappropriate to notice, that among Swift's eccentricities, we find a propensity to "out-of-the-way rhymes." In his works are numerous examples of couplets made apparently for no other purpose but to show that no word could baffle him; and the anecdote of his long research for a rhyme for the name of his old enemy Serjent _Betsworth_, and of the curious accident by which he obtained it, is well known; from which we may conclude that he was on the watch for occasions of exhibiting such rhymes as _rakewell_ and _sequel_, _charge ye_ and _clergy_, without supposing him ignorant that he was guilty of "lèse majesté" against the laws of correct pronunciation.

When I asked MR. BEDE'S decision on a _palpable Cockneyism_ in verse, I did so merely with a view, by a "_tu quoque_ pleasantry," to enliven a discussion, which I hope we may carry on and conclude in that good humour with which I accept his parenthetic hint, that I have made "a bull" of my Pegasus. I beg to submit to him, that, as I read the _Classical Dictionary_, it is from the _heels_ of Pegasus the fount of poetic inspiration is supposed to be derived; and, further, that the _brogue_ is not so _malapropos_ to the _heel_ as he imagines, for in Ireland the _brogue_ is in use as well to cover the _understanding_ as to _tip the tongue_. Could I enjoy the pleasure of MR. BEDE'S company in a stroll over my native mountains, he might find that there are occasions on which he might be glad to put off {484} his London-made shoe, and "to _wear_ the _brogue_, though _speak_ none."

A. B. R.

P.S.--The _postscriptum_ of J. H. T. respecting the pronunciation of English being preserved in Scotland, goes direct to an opinion I long since formed, that the Lowland Scotch, as we read it in the Waverley Novels, is the only genuine unadulterated remains we have of the Saxon language, as used before the Norman Conquest. I formed this opinion from continually tracing what we call "braid Scotch" to its root, in Bosworth's, and other Saxon dictionaries; and I lately found this fact confirmed and accounted for in a passage of Verstegan, as follows:--He tells us that after the battle of Hastings Prince Edgar Atheling, with his sisters Margaret and Christian, retired into Scotland, where King Malcolm married the former of these ladies; and proceeds thus:

"As now the English court, by reason of the aboundance of Normannes therein, became moste to speak French, so the Scottish court, because of the queen, and the many English that came with her, began to speak English; the which language, it would seem, King Malcolm himself had before that learned, and now, by reason of his queen, did more affecte it. But the English toung, in fine, prevailed more in Scotland than the French did in England; _for English became the language of all the south part of Scotland_, the Irish (or Gaelic) having before that been the general language of the whole country, since remaining only in the north."--Verstegan's _Restitution of Antiquities_, A.D. 1605.

Many of your accomplished philological readers will doubtless consider the information of this Note trivial and puerile; but they will, I hope, bear with a tyro in the science, in recording an original remark of his own, borne out by an authority so decisive as Verstegan.

A. B. R.

* * * * *

PICTURES BY HOGARTH.

(Vol. vii., pp. 339. 412.)

In reply to AMATEUR, I can inform him that at the sale of the Marlborough effects at Marlborough House about thirty years ago, there were sold four or five small whole-lengths in oil of members of that family. They were hardly clever enough for what Hogarth's after-style would lead us to expect, but there were many reasons for thinking they were by him. They came into the possession of Mr. Croker, who presented them, as family curiosities, to the second Earl Spencer, and they are now, I presume, in the gallery at Althorpe. One of them was peculiarly curious as connected with a remarkable anecdote of the great Duchess. Horace Walpole tells us in the _Reminiscences_, her granddaughter, Lady Bateman, having persuaded her brother, the young Duke of Marlborough, to marry a Miss Trevor without the Duchess's consent:

"The grandam's rage exceeded all bounds. Having a portrait of Lady Bateman, she blackened the face, and then wrote on it, '_Now her outside's as black as her inside._'"

One of the portraits I speak of was of Lady Bateman, and bore on its face evidence of having incurred some damage, for the coat of arms with which (like all the others, and as was Hogarth's fashion) it was ornamented in one corner, were angrily scratched out, as with a knife. Whether this defacement gave rise to Walpole's story, or whether the face had been also blackened with some stuff that was afterwards removed, seems doubtful; the picture itself, according to my recollection, showed no mark but the armorial defacement.

I much wonder this style of small whole-lengths has not been more prevalent; they give the general air and manner of the personage so much better than the bust size can do, and they are so much more suited to the size of our ordinary apartments.

C.

Referring to AN AMATEUR'S inquiry as to where any pictures painted by Hogarth are to be seen, I beg to say that I have in my possession, and should be happy to show him, the portrait of Hogarth's wife (Sir William Thornhill's daughter), painted by himself.

LYNDON ROLLS.

Banbury.

The late Bishop Luscombe showed me, at Paris, in 1835, a picture of "The Oratorio,"--a subject well known from Hogarth's etching. He told me that he bought it at a broker's shop in the Rue St. Denis; that, on examination, he found the frame to be English; and that, as the price was small--thirty francs, if I remember rightly--he bought the piece, without supposing it to be more than a copy. Sir William Knighton, on seeing it in the bishop's collection, told him that Hogarth's original had belonged to the Dukes of Richmond, and had been in their residence at Paris until the first Revolution, since which time it had not been heard of; and Sir William had no doubt that the bishop had been so fortunate as to recover it. Perhaps some of your readers may have something to say on this story.

J. C. R.

* * * * *

PHOTOGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE.

_Washing Collodion Process._--In "N. & Q.," No. 153., p. 320., your valued correspondent DR. DIAMOND states "that up to the _final_ period of the operation, no washing of the plate is requisite. It prevents, rather than assists, the necessary chemical action.".

Now, in all other instructions I have yet seen, it is directed to wash off the iron, or other developing solution, _prior_ to immersing in the hypo., and after {485} such immersion, again to wash well in water. I shall feel greatly obliged if DR. D. will be kind enough to state whether the first-named washing is requisite, or whether the properties of the hypo., or the beauty of the picture, will be in any way injured by the previous solutions _not_ having been washed off, prior to the fixings.

C. W.

[We have submitted this Query to DR. DIAMOND, who informs us that he never adopts the practice of washing off the developing fluid, and considers it not only needless, but sometimes prejudicial, as when such washing has not been resorted to, the hyposulphite solution flows more readily over the picture, and causes none of the unpleasant stains which frequently occur in pictures which have been previously washed, especially if hard water has been used. But besides this, and the saving of time, the doing away with this unnecessary washing economises water, which in out-door practice is often a great consideration. DR. DIAMOND would again impress upon our readers the advantage of using the hyposulphite over and over again, merely keeping up its full strength by the addition of fresh crystals of the salt from time to time, as such practice produces pictures of whiter and softer tone than are ever produced by the raw solution.]

_Colouring Collodion Pictures_ (Vol. vii., p. 388.)--A patent has just been taken out (dated September 23, 1852) for this purpose, by Mons. J. L. Tardieu, of Paris. He terms his process _tardiochromy_. It consists in applying oil or other colours at the back of the pictures, so as to give the requisite tints to the several parts of the photograph, without at all interfering with its extreme delicacy. It may even, in some cases, be used to remedy defects in the photographic picture. The claim is essentially for the application of colours at the back, instead of on the surface of photographs, whatever kind of colours may be used. It is therefore, of course, applicable only to photographs taken on paper, glass, or some transparent material.

A. C. WILSON.

_Wanted, a simple Test for a good Lens._--As all writers on Photography agree that the first great essential for successful practice is a good lens--that is to say, a lens of which the visual and chemical foci coincide--can any of the scientific readers of "N. & Q." point out any simple test by which unscientific parties desirous of practising photography may be enabled to judge of the goodness of a lens? A country gentleman, like myself, may purchase a lens from an eminent house, with an assurance that it is everything that can be desired (and I am _not_ putting an imaginary case), and may succeed in getting beautiful images upon his focussing-glass, but very unsatisfactory pictures; and it may not be until he has almost abandoned photography, in despair at his own want of skill, that he has the opportunity of showing his apparatus, manipulation, &c. to some more practised hand, who is enabled to prove that _the lens was not capable_ of doing what the vendors stated it could do. Surely scientific men must know of a simple test which would save the disappointment I have described; and I hope some one will take pity upon me, and send it to "N. & Q.," for the benefit of myself and every other

COUNTRY PRACTITIONER.

_Photographic Tent--Restoration of Faded Negatives._--In Vol. vii., p. 462., I find M. F. M. inquiring for a cheap and portable tent, effective for photographic operations out of doors. I have for the last two years, and in mid-day (June), prepared calotype paper, and also the collodion glass plates, for the camera, under a tent of glazed yellow calico of only a single thickness: the light admitted is very great, but does not in the least injure the most sensitive plate or paper. It is made square like a large bag, so that in a room I can use it double as a blind; and out of doors, in a high wind, I have crept into it, and prepared my paper opposite the object I intended to calotype.

I should be glad it any of your readers would inform me how a failed negative calotype can be restored to its original strength. I last year took a great number, some of which have nearly faded away; and others are as strong, and as able to be used to print from, as when first done. The paper was prepared with the single iodide of silver solution, and rendered sensitive with aceto-nitrate sil. and gallic acid in the usual way. I attribute the fading to the hyposulphate not being got rid of; and the question is, Can the picture he restored?

Are DR. DIAMOND'S _Notes_ published yet?

S. S. B., Jun.

* * * * *

Replies to Minor Queries.

_Gibbon's Library_ (Vol. vii., p. 407.).--I visited it in 1825, in company with Dr. Scholl, of Lausanne, who took charge of it for Mr. Beckford. It was sold between 1830 and 1835, partly by auction, partly by private sale in detail.

JAMES DENNISTOUN.

_Robert Drury_ (Vol. v., p. 533.).--I am afraid that the credit attachable to Drury's _Madagascar_ is not supported or strengthened by the announcement that the author was "every day to be spoken with" at Old Tom's Coffee House in Birchin Lane. _The Apparition of Mrs. Veal_, and other productions of a similar description, should make us very doubtful as regards the literature of the earlier part of the eighteenth century. Might not a person have been suborned to represent the fictitious Robert Drury, to the benefit of the coffee-house keeper as well as the publisher? I am induced to express this suspicion by a parallel case of the same period. _The Ten Years' Voyages of Captain George Roberts_, London, 1726, is universally, I {486} believe, considered fictitious, and ascribed to Defoe; yet at the end of the work we find:

"N. B.--The little boy so often mentioned in the foregoing sheets, now lives with Mr. Galapin, a tobacconist, in Monument Yard; and may be referred to for the truth of most of the particulars before related."

W. PINKERTON.

Ham.

_Grub Street Journal_ (Vol. vii., p. 383.).--MR. JAMES CROSSLEY, after quoting Eustace Budgell's conjectures as to the writers of this paper, leaves it as doubtful whether Pope was or was not one of them. The poet has himself contradicted Budgell's insinuation when he retorted upon him in those terrible lines (alluding to his alleged forgery of a will):

"Let Budgell charge low Grub Street to my quill, And write whate'er he please--except my will!"

ALEXANDER ANDREWS.

_Wives of Ecclesiastics_ (Vol. i., p. 115.).--In considering "the statutes made by Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas, Archbishop of York, and all the other bishops of England," ann. 1108, interdicting the marriage of ecclesiastics, might it not be worth investigating, by such of your correspondents as are curious on the subject, what had been the antecedents of the several bishops themselves?

With respect to Thomas II., Archbishop of York, it is historically certain, that he was the _son_ of an ecclesiastic, and likewise the _grandson_ of an ecclesiastic (his _father_ being one of the bishops who concurred in these statutes). Neither does it seem altogether unlikely that Thomas himself also had spent some part of his early life in bonds of wedlock, since we learn from the _Monasticon_ (vol. iii. p. 490. of new edit.), that "Thomas, _son of Thomas_ (_the second of that name_), _Archbishop of York_, confirmed what his predecessors, Thomas and Girard, had given," &c. If this be correct, as stated[4], the conclusion is inevitable; but possibly some error may have arisen out of the circumstance, that Thomas I. and Thomas II., Archbishops of York, were uncle and nephew.

J. SANSOM.

[Footnote 4: Robertus Bloëtus also, who was still Bishop of Lincoln, and Rogerus, Bishop of Salisbury, appear to have had sons, though, perhaps, not born in wedlock; but query.]