Chapter 4

_Bill Fare._ Beans and bacon. Cabbage, colliflower. Three doz. chickens. Two shoulders mutton, cowcumbers. Two turbets. Rump beef, &c. &c. Goose and plumbpudding. Quarter lamb, sallad. Tarts, jellies, strawberries, cream. Cherrys, syllabubs, and blomonge. Leg lamb, spinnage. Crawfish, pickled salmon. Fryd tripe, calves' heads. Gravy and Pease soup. Two piggs. Breast veal, ragoud. Ice cream, pine apple. Surloin beaf. Pidgeons, green peas. Lobsters, crabs. Twelve red herrings, twenty-two dobils."

W. R.

Stockwell.

* * * * *

ON THE USE OF THE HOUR-GLASS IN PULPITS.

(Vol. vii., p. 489.)

Perhaps the following may be of service as a farther illustration of this subject.

Zacharie Boyd says, in _The Last Battell of the Sovle in Death_, 1629, reprinted Glasgow, 1831, at p. 469.:

"Now after his Battell ended hee hath surrendered the spirit, _Clepsydra effluxit_, his _houre-glasse_ is now runne out, and his soule is come to its wished home, where it is free from the fetters of flesh."

This divine was minister of the barony parish of Glasgow, the church for which was then in the crypt of the cathedral. I have no doubt the hour-glass was there used from which he draws his simile. Your correspondent refers to sermons an hour long, but, to judge from the contents of "Mr. Zacharie's" MS. sermons still preserved in the library of the College of Glasgow, each, at the rate of ordinary speaking, must have occupied at least an hour and a half in delivery. When he had become infirm and near his end, and had found it necessary to shorten his sermons, his "kirk session" was offended, as--

"Feb. 13, 1651. Some are to speak to Mr. Z. Boyd about the soon skailing (dismissing) of the Baronie Kirk on Sunday afternoon."

Though sermons are now generally restricted from three quarters to an hour's delivery, the practice of long preaching in the olden times in the west of Scotland had much prevailed. Within my own recollection I have heard sermons of nearly two hours' duration; and early among a few classes of the first Dissenters, on "Sacramental Occasions" as they are yet called, the services lasted altogether (not unfrequently) continuously from ten o'clock on Sabbath forenoon, to three and {83} four o'clock the following morning. A traditional anecdote is current of an old Presbyterian clergyman, unusually full of matter, who, having preached out his hour-glass, was accustomed to pause, and addressing the precentor, "_Another glass and then_," recommenced his sermon.

A pictorial representation of the hour-glass in a country church is to be seen in front of the precentor's desk, or pulpit, in a very scarce humorsome print, entitled "Presbyterian Penance," by the famous David Allan. It also figures in the engraving of the painting by Wilkie, of John Knox preaching before Mary Queen of Scots. About twenty years ago it was either in the Cathedral of Stirling or the Armory of the Castle (the ancient chapel), that I saw the hour-glass (about twelve inches high) which had been connected with one or other of the pulpits, from both of which John Knox is said to have preached. It is likely the hour-glass is there "even unto this day" (unless abstracted by some relic hunter); and if it could be depended on as an original appendage to the pulpits, would prove that its use was coeval with the times of the Scottish Reformation. I think its high antiquity as certain as the oaken pulpits themselves.

At an early period the general poverty of the country, and the scarcity of clocks and watches, must have given rise to the adoption of the hour sand-glass, a simple instrument, but yet elegant and impressive, for the measurement of a brief portion of our fleeting span.

G. N.

Glasgow.

On the 31st May, 1640, the churchwardens of great Staughton, co. Huntingdonshire, "are, and stand charged with (among other church goods), a pulpit standinge in the church, having a cover over the same, and an houre-glasse adjoininge."

Copy of a cutting from a magazine, name and date unknown:

"Among Dr. Rawlinson's manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, No. 941 contains collection of _Miscellaneous Discourses_, by Mr. Lewis of Margate, in Kent, whence the following extract has been made:

"'It appears that these hour-glasses were coeval with our Reformation. In a fine frontispiece, prefixed to the Holy Bible of the bishops' translation, printed in 4to. by John Day, 1569, Archbishop Parker is represented in the pulpit with an hour-glass standing on his right hand; ours, here, stood on the left without any frame. It was proper that some time should be prescribed for the length of the sermon, and clocks and watches were not then so common as they are now. This time of an hour continued till the Revolution, as appears by Bishop Sanderson's, Tillotson's, Stillingfleet's, Dr. Barrow's, and others' sermons, printed during that time.'

"The writer of this article was informed in 1811 by the Rev. Mr. Burder, who had the curacy of St. Dunstan's, Fleet Street, that the large silver hour-glass formerly used in that church, was melted down into two staff heads for the parish beadles.

"An hour-glass frame of iron, fixed in the wall by the side of the pulpit, was remaining in 1797 in the church of North Moor, in Oxfordshire."

JOSEPH RIX.

St. Neots, Huntingdonshire.

In many of our old pulpits built during the seventeenth century, when hour sermons were the rule, and thirty minutes the exception, the shelf on which the glass used to stand may still be seen. If I recollect rightly, that of Miles Coverdale was thus furnished, as stated in the newspapers, at the time the church of Bartholomew was removed. Perhaps this emblem was adopted on gravestones as significant of the character of Death as a minister or preacher.

The late Basil Montague, when delivering a course of lectures on "Laughter" at the Islington Institution some few years since, kept time by the aid of this antique instrument. If I remember aright, he turned the glass and said, "_Another glass and then_," or some equivalent expression.

E. G. BALLARD.

There is an example at the church of St. Alban, Wood Street, Cheapside. This church was rebuilt by Sir C. Wren, and finished 1685; showing that the hour-glass was in use subsequent to the times alluded to.

J. D. ALLCROFT.

I saw on 13th January last, an iron hour-glass stand affixed to a pillar in the north aisle of Belton Church, in the Isle of Axholme.

EDWARD PEACOCK.

Bottesford Moors, Kirton-in-Lindsey.

* * * * *

LADIES' ARMS BORNE IN A LOZENGE.

(Vol. vii., p. 571.)

The subject of the Query put by your correspondent is one that has frequently occurred to me, but which is involved in obscurity. Heraldic writers generally have contented themselves with the mere statement of ladies' arms being thus borne; and where we do find an opinion hazarded, it is more in the form of a quotation from a nameless author, or of a timid suggestion, than an attempt to elucidate the question by argument or from history.

By some this form of shield is said to have descended to us from the Amazons, who bore such: others say, from the form of their tombstones! Now we find it to represent the ancient spindle so much used by ladies; and again to be a shield found by the Romans unfit for use, and therefore transferred to the weaker sex, who were "allowed to place their ensigns upon it, with one corner always uppermost." {84}

Here are quotations from a few of our writers on the science of Heraldry:--

BURKE, _Encyclop. Herald._ 1844. Queen Victoria bears her arms on a full and complete shield; "for," says the old rhyme--

"Our sagest men of lore define The kingly state as masculine, Paiseant, martial bold and strong, The stay of right, the scourge of wrong; Hence those that England's sceptre wield, Must buckle on broad sword and shield, And o'er the land, and o'er the sea, Maintain her sway triumphantly."

This, unfortunately, is only one side of the question: and, though satisfactorily accounting for the shape of the shield of royalty, does not enlighten us on the "origin and meaning" of the lozenge.

BARRINGTON, _Display of Heraldry_, 1844:--

"An unmarried daughter bears her father's arms on a lozenge-shaped shield, without any addition or alteration."

BERRY, _Encycl. Herald._ 1830:--

"The arms of maidens and widows should be borne in shields of this shape."

ROBSON, _British Herald_, 1830:--

"Lozenge, a four-cornered figure, differing from the fusil, being shorter and broader. Plutarch says that in Megara [read Megura], an ancient town of Greece, _the tombstones under which the bodies of Amazons lay_ were of that form: some conjecture this to be the cause why ladies have their arms on lozenges."

PORNY, _Elements of Heraldry_, 1795, supposes--

"The lozenge may have been originally a _fusil_, or _fusee_, as the French call it: it is a figure longer than the lozenge, and _signifies a spindle_, which is a woman's instrument."

This writer also quotes _Sylvester de Petra Sancta_, who would have this shield to "_represent a cushion_, whereon women used to sit and spin, or do other housewifery."

BRYDSON, _Summary View of Heraldry_, 1795:--

"The shields on which armorial bearings are represented are of various forms, as round, oval, or somewhat resembling a heart; which last is the most common form. Excepting sovereigns, women unmarried, or widows, bear their arms on a lozenge shield, which is of a square form, so placed as to have one of its angles upwards, _and is supposed to resemble a distoff_."

BOYES, _Great Theatre of Honour_, 1754. In this great work the various forms of shields, and the etymology of their names, are treated on at considerable length. The Greeks had five:--the _Aspis_, the _Gerron_ or _Gerra_, the _Thurios_, the _Laiveon_, and the _Pelte_ or _Pelta_. The Romans had the _Ancile_, the _Scutum_, the _Clypeus_, the _Parma_, the _Cetra_, and others; but none of these approached the shape of the lozenge. The shields of modern nations are also dealt with at length; still the author appears to have had no information nor an opinion upon the lozenge, which he dismisses with these remarks:--

"L'ecu des filles est _en lozenge_, de meme de celui des veuves; et en France et ailleurs, celles-ci l'ornent et l'entourent d'une cordeliere ou cordon a divers neuds. Quant aux femmes mariees, elles accollent d'ordinaire leurs armes avec celles de leurs epoux; mais quelquefois elles les portent aussi _en lozenge_."

COATES, _Dictionary of Heraldry_, 1725, quotes Colombiere, a French herald, who, he says, gives upwards of thirty examples of differently formed shields; but no allusion is made to the lozenge.

CARTER, _Honor Redivivus_, 1660.

DUGDALE, _Ancient Usage in bearing Arms_, 1682.

GWILLIM, _Display of Heraldry_, 1638.

CAMDEN, _Remains_, 1637.

GERARD LEGH, _Accedence of Armorie_, 1576.

None of these authors have touched on the subject; which, considering that at the least two of them are the greatest authorities, appears somewhat strange.

FERNE, _Blazon of Gentrie_, 1586--

"Thinks the lozenge is formed of the shield called _Tessera_ or _Tessela_, which the Romans, finding unfit for use, did allow to women to place their ensigns upon, with one of its angles always upmost."

Though unable at this moment to furnish examples in proof of my opinion, I must say that it is contrary to the one expressed by your correspondent CEYREP, that "formerly all ladies of rank" bore their arms upon a complete shield, or bore shields upon their seals. The two instances cited by him are rather unfortunate, the connexion of both ladies with royalty being sufficiently close to suggest the possibility of their right to the "full and complete" shield.

Margaret, Duchess (not Countess) of Norfolk, was sole heir of her father, Thomas of Brotherton, fifth Earl of Norfolk, son of King Edward I., and Marshal of England. She, "for the greatness of her birth, her large revenues and wealth," was created Duchess of Norfolk for life; and at the coronation of King Richard II. she exhibited her petition "to be accepted to the office of High Marshal," which was, I believe, granted. In such case, setting aside her royal descent, I apprehend that, by virtue of her office, she would not bear her arms in a lozenge. She bore the arms of England with only a label for difference.

Margaret, Countess of Richmond, was herself royally descended, being great-granddaughter of John of Gaunt, son of Edward III.; was daughter-in-law of Henry V.'s widow, and mother of Henry VII. Being descended from the antenuptial children of John of Gaunt's third wife, who had been legitimatised by act of parliament for all purposes except succession to the crown, {85} Henry VII. would probably desire by every means in his power to suppress anything suggestive of his unsubstantial title to the crown. It might be by his particular desire that his mother assumed the full regal shield, on which to emblazon arms differing but slightly from those of her son, the king.

It is not, however, my opinion that the form of shield under consideration is anything like so ancient as some of the authors would make it. I do not believe it comes to us either from the Amazons or the Romans.

My own opinion, in the absence of any from the great writers to guide me, is, that we owe the use of this form of shield amongst ladies to _hatchments_ or _funeral achievements_. During the time of mourning for persons of rank, their coats of arms are set up in churches and over the principal entrances of their houses. On these occasions it is well known their arms are always placed in a large black lozenge; a form adopted as the most proper figure for admitting the coats of arms of sixteen ancestors to be placed round it, four on each of the sides of the square.

It was not until the reign of Richard III. that the College of Arms was regularly incorporated; and though the science of heraldry received its highest polish during the splendid reigns of Edward III. and Henry V., it had yet scarcely been subjected to those rules which since the establishment of the College have controlled it. Mark Noble, in his _History of the College of Arms_, says that the latter reign--

"If it did not add to the wealth of the nation at large, gave rise to a number of great families, enriched by the spoils of Azincourt, the plunder of France, and the ransom of princes. The heraldic body was peculiarly prized and protected by the king, who, however, was very whimsical in the adoption of cognizances and devices."

During the greater portion of the fourteenth century, and the early part of the fifteenth, there was a rage for jousts, tilts, and tournaments; and almost every English nobleman had his officers of arms; dukes, marquesses, and earls were allowed a herald and pursuivant; the lower nobility, and even knights, might retain one of the latter. To these officers belonged the ordering of everything relating to the solemn and magnificent funerals, which were so general in these centuries, and which they presided over and marshalled.

During the reign of Edward IV. the exact form of these obsequies was prescribed. Not only were the noblemen's own heralds there, but the king's also; and not in tabards bearing the sovereign's, but the deceased's arms.

So preposterously fond of funeral rites were monarchs and their subjects, that the obsequies of princes were observed by such sovereigns as were in alliance with them, and in the same state as if the royal remains had been conveyed from one Christian kingdom to another. Individuals had their obsequies kept in various places where they had particular connexions.[3]

Is it too much then to presume that in the midst of all this pomp and affectation of grief, the hatchment of the deceased nobleman would be displayed as much, and continued as long, as possible by the widow? May we not reasonably believe that these ladies would vie with each other in these displays of the insignia of mourning, until, by usage, the lozenge-shaped hatchment became the shield appropriated to the sex?

These hypotheses are not without some foundation; but if any of your correspondents will enunciate another theory, I shall be glad to give it my support if it is found to be more reasonable than the foregoing.

BROCTUNA.

Bury, Lancashire.

[Footnote 3: Noble.]

* * * * *

PHOTOGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE.

_Multiplication of Photographs._--In Vol. viii., p. 60. is a letter from MR. JOHN STEWART of Pau suggesting certain modes of operating in producing positive photographs, and which suggestions are apparently offered as _novelties_, when, in fact, they have been for some considerable time in practice by other manipulators. Of course, I do not suppose that they are otherwise regarded by MR. STEWART than as novelties, who cannot be acquainted with what is doing here; but it appears to me desirable to discriminate between facts that are _absolutely_, and those that are _relatively_ new.

Most of the transparent stereoscopic photographs sold in such numbers by all our eminent opticians, _are actually produced_ in the way recommended by MR. STEWART; and reduced copies of photographs, &c., have been produced in almost every possible variety by DR. DIAMOND, and many others of our most eminent photographers. Very early in the history of this science, the idea was suggested by Mr. Fox Talbot himself, of taking views of a small size, and enlarging them for multiplication; and, if I am rightly informed, Mr. Ross was applied to to construct a lens specially for the purpose. Some months back, as early at least as March or April in the present year, Mr. F. H. Wenham actually printed on common chloride paper a _life-size_ positive from a small negative on collodion; and immediately afterwards adopted the use of iodized paper for the same purpose; and after he had exhibited the proofs, I myself repeated the experiment. In fact, had there been time at the last meeting of the Photographic Society, a paper on this very subject would have been read by Mr. Wenham; but the {86} business before the meeting was too extensive to admit of it. My object is not, of course, to offer any objection to the proposition, but simply to put in a claim of merit for the idea originally due to Mr. Fox Talbot, and secondarily to Mr. Wenham, who I believe was an earlier operator in this way than any one.

GEO. SHADBOLT.

_Yellow Bottles for Photographic Chemicals._--As light transmitted through a yellow curtain, or yellow glass, does not affect photographic operations, would it not be desirable to keep the nitrate of silver and its solutions in yellow glass bottles, instead of covering the plain white glass with black paper, as I see directed in some cases?

CERIDWEN.

* * * * *

Replies to Minor Queries.

_Donnybrook Fair_ (Vol. vii., p. 549.).--ABHBA will find his answer in D'Alton's _History of the County of Dublin_, p. 804.:

"About the year 1174, Earl 'Strongbow' gave Donnybrock (Devonalbroc), amongst other lands, to Walter de Riddlesford; and in 1204, King John granted to the corporation of Dublin license for an _annual eight-day fair here_, commencing on the day of the finding of the Holy Cross (May 3rd), with similar stallages and tolls, as established in Waterford and Limerick."

This scene of an Irishman's glory has been daguerreotyped in lines that may be left in your pages, as being probably quite as little known to your readers as is the work above cited:

"Instead of weapons, either band Seized on such arms as came to hand. And as famed Ovid paints th' adventures Of wrangling Lapithae and Centaurs, Who at their feast, by Bacchus led, Threw bottles at each others' head; And these arms failing in their scuffles, Attack'd with andirons, tonges, and shovels: So clubs and billets, staves and stones, Met fierce, encountering every sconce, And cover'd o'er with knobs and pains, Each void receptacle for brains."

J. D.

_Abigail_ (Vol. iv., p. 424.; Vol. v., pp. 38. 94. 450., Vol. viii., p. 42.).--Not having my "N. & Q." at hand, I cannot say what may have been already told on this subject, but I think I can answer the Queries of your last correspondent, H. T. RYLEY. There can be, I think, no doubt that the familiar use of the name Abigail, for the _genus_ "lady's maid," is derived from one whom I may call _Abigail the Great_; who, before she ascended King David's bed and throne, introduced herself under the oft-reiterated description of a "hand-maid." (See 1 Sam. xxv. 24, 25, 27, 28, 31.) I have no _Concordance_ at hand, but I suspect there is no passage in Scripture where the word _hand-maid_ is more prominent; and so the idea became associated with the name _Abigail_. An _Abigail_ for a hand-maid is therefore merely analogous to a _Goliath_ for a giant; a _Job_ for a patient man; a _Samson_ for a strong one; a _Jezebel_ for a shrew, &c. I need hardly add, that H. T. RYLEY'S conjecture, that this use of the term _Abigail_ had any relation to the Lady Masham, is, therefore, quite supererogative--but I may go farther. The old Duchess of Marlborough's _Apology_, which _first_ told the world that Lady Masham's Christian name was Abigail, and that she was a poor cousin of her own, was not published till 1742, when all feeling about "Abigail Hill and her brother Jack" was extinct. In fine, it will be found that the use of the term _Abigail_ for a lady's maid was much more frequent _before_ the change of Queen Anne's Whig ministry than _after_.

C.

_Honorary Degrees_ (Vol. viii, p. 8.).--Honorary degrees give no corporate rights. Johnson never himself assumed the title of Doctor; conferred on him first by the University of Dublin in 1765, and afterwards in 1775 by that of Oxford. See Croker's _Boswell_, p. 168. n. 5., for the probable motives of Johnson's never having called himself Doctor.

C.

_Red Hair_ (Vol. vii., p. 616.).--The Danes are said to have been (and to be even now) a red-haired race.

They were long the scourge of England, and to this possibly may be attributed in some degree the prejudice against people having hair of that colour.

In Denmark, it is said, red-hair is esteemed a beauty.

That red-haired people are fiery and passionate is undoubtedly true; at least I vouch for it as far as my experience goes; but that they emit a disagreeable odour when inattentive to personal cleanliness, is probably a vulgar prejudice arising from the colour of their hair, resembling that of the fox--_unde_ the term "foxy."

A. C. M.

Exeter.

_Historical Engraving_ (Vol. vii., p. 619).--I am glad I happen to be able to inform E. S. TAYLOR that his engraving, about the restoration of Charles II., is to be found in a book entitled--

"Verhael in forme van Journal, van de Reys ende 't Vertoeven van den seer Doorluchtige ende Machtige Prins Carel de II." &c. "In 's Graven-hage, by Adrian Vlack, M.DC.LX." &c.

Folio. The names at the corner of the engraving are apparently "F. T. vliet, jn. P. Phillipe, sculp."

J. M. G.

_Proverbs quoted by Suetonius_ (Vol. vii., p. 594).--A full explanation of the proverb [Greek: speude bradeos] {87} will be found in the _Adagia_ of Erasmus, under the head "Festina lente," p. 588., edit. 1599. That it was a favourite proverb of the Emperor Augustus is also stated by Gellius, _Noct. Att._ x. 11., and Macrob., Saturn. vi. 8. The verse,--

"[Greek: asphales gar est' ameinon e thrasus stratelates],"

is from the _Phoenissae_ of Euripides, v. 599.

L.