Chapter 3

_Reynolds' Nephew._--In the Correspondence of David Garrick, vol. i. pp. 664. 658., 4to., 1831, there are letters of Sir Joshua Reynolds regarding a play written by his nephew. Can you tell me whether this was the Rev. Mr. Palmer, minister of the Temple Church, and who was afterwards Dean of Gashel; or had Sir Joshua any other nephew? The letters are dated 1774, and the author appears to have been resident in London about that time.

A. Z.

_Sir Isaac Newton._--Which is the passage in Newton's _Optics_ to which Flamsteed refers, in his account of the altercation between them, as having given occasion to some of the enemies of the former to tax him with Atheism? and is there any evidence, besides what this passage may afford, in favour of Dr. Johnson's assertion, that Newton _set out_ as an infidel? (Boswell, July 28, 1763.) The _Optics_ were not published till 1704, but had been composed many years previously.

J. S. WARDEN.

_Limerick, Dublin, and Cork._--Can any of your Irish or other correspondents inform me to whom we are indebted for the lines--

"Limerick was, Dublin is, and Cork shall be, The finest city of the three"?

Also, in what respect Limerick was formerly superior to Dublin?

N.

Dublin.

_Praying to the West._--A friend of mine told me that a Highland woman in Strathconan, wishing to say that her mother-in-law prayed for my friend daily, said: "She holds up her hands to the _West_ for you every day." If to the _East_ it would have been more intelligible; but why to the West?

L. M. M. R.

_Mulciber._--Who was Mulciber, immortalised (!) in Garth's _Dispensary_ (ed. 1699, p. 65.) as "the Mayor Bromicham?" My copy contains on the fly-leaf a MS. key to all the names save this.

R. C. WARDE.

Kidderminster.

_Captain Booth of Stockport_ (Vol. vi., p. 340.).--As yet, no reply to this Query has been elicited; but as it is a subject of some interest to both Lancashire and Cheshire men, I should like to ascertain from JAYTEE in what collection he met with the MS. copy of Captain Booth's _Ordinary of Arms_? Its existence does not appear to have been known to any of our Cheshire or Lancashire historians; for in none of their works do I find any mention of such an individual as Capt. Booth of Stockport. Sir Peter Leycester, in his _Antiquities of Bucklow Hundred_, Cheshire, repeatedly acknowledges the assistance rendered him by John Booth of Twanbow's _Book of Pedigrees_; but this gentleman appears merely to have collected for Cheshire, and not for Lancashire. Sir George Booth, afterwards Lord Delamere, is the only _Captain_ Booth I have met with in my limited sphere of historical research; and I am not aware that he ever indulged much in genealogical study.

T. HUGHES.

Chester.

"_A saint in crape._"--

"A saint in crepe is twice a saint in lawn."

Whence this line?

W. T. M.

Hong Kong.

_French Abbes._--What was the precise ecclesiastical and social _status_ of a French Abbe before the Revolution?

W. FRASER.

Tor-Mohun.

_What Day is it at our Antipodes?_--Perhaps you can give me a satisfactory answer to the following question, a reply to which I have not yet been able to procure.

I write this at 11 p.m. on Tuesday, July 12; at our Antipodes it is, of course, 11 a.m.: but is it 11 a.m. on Tuesday, July 12, or on Wednesday, July 13? And whichever it is, what is the reason for its being so? for it seems to me that the solution of the question must be perfectly arbitrary.

H.

"_Spendthrift._"--In Lord John Russell's _Memorials of Charles James Fox_, vol. i. p. 43., there is a letter addressed to Mr. Richard Fitzpatrick, in which Mr. Fox asks "if he was in England when Lord Carlisle's _Spendthrift_ came out." And at the foot of the same page there is a note in which it is stated that this "was probably some periodical paper of 1767."

My object in writing the above is for the purpose of asking what publication the _Spendthrift_ really was, and where it can be purchased or seen?

W. W.

Malta.

_Second Growth of Grass._--The second growth of grass is known by different names in different localities. In some it is called _fog_, in others _after-math_ and _after-grass_. The former name is common about Uxbridge, and the latter about Stoke Pogis, in Buckinghamshire. In Hertfordshire it is {103} called _hugga-mabuff_; I am not certain that this is the correct spelling of the name, never having seen it either in writing or print. In Leicestershire and Cambridgeshire the name _eddish_ prevails, I am told, and hence _eddish cheese_, made from the milk of cows which have grazed _eddish_. Can any of your correspondents add to the above names, or throw a light upon their origin?

R. W. F.

Bath.

_The Laird of Brodie._--Can any of your correspondents explain what James V. of Scotland means in his celebrated ballad when he says:

"I thocht you were a gentleman, At least the Laird of Brodie."

According to the literal meaning, it would seem that the Laird of Brodie was something less than a gentleman? Could his majesty intend to satirise the alleged royal descent of Brodie from Bruidhie, the son of Billi, king of the Picts (see James' _Critical Essay_), by insinuating that the "Picts" and their descendants were not entitled to be ranked as "Generosi?"

I. H. B.

_Mrs. Tighe, Author of "Psyche."_--There is a monument in Inistioge churchyard, co. Kilkenny, to the memory of the authoress of that beautiful poem _Psyche_, Mrs. Mary Tighe, with a statue of her, said to be by Flaxman, which statement, as to its being from the chisel of that celebrated sculptor, I have seen contradicted. She was the daughter of the Rev. W. Blackford, and married Mr. Henry Tighe of Woodstock, Ireland, in 1793. The inscription, which, I believe, is in existence, was not added to the monument in 1845. Can any of your correspondents favour me with a copy of it? and was the statue by Flaxman? Is there any authentic memoir of this delightful poetess? When did her husband Mr. Tighe die? He is said to have survived his lady, who died in 1810, but a short time; and that he was the author of a _History of the County of Kilkenny_. I believe it was on visiting the churchyard of Inistioge that Mrs. Hemans wrote "The Grave of a Poetess." She is said to have been very beautiful. Is there any other engraved portrait of her in existence beside the one annexed to the several editions of her poems? Any particulars relating to this lady or her husband will be esteemed by

T. B. WHITBORNE.

_Bishop Ferrar._--Was the Bishop Ferrar (or Farrar), the martyr who suffered during the reign of Mary, of the same family as Ferrers (or Ferrars) earl of Derby and Nottingham, in the reign of Henry III.?

A CONSTANT READER.

_Sir Thomas de Longueville._--In the year 1753, a Sir Thomas de Longueville, baronet, was a lieutenant in his Majesty's fleet, and his commission bore date 3rd June, 1719. I should be glad if any of your correspondents could inform me if he was a descendant of the De Longueville, the second _Fides Achates_ of Scotland's "ill-requited chief." The real Sir Thomas de Longueville reposes in the churchyard of Bourtie, in the county of Aberdeen. Bourtie is a parish fraught with historic recollections. On the hill of Barra, within a mile of the parish church, Bruce at once and for ever put a period to the sway and power of the Cuming. I should be glad to learn if any of the descendants of the _Lieutenant_ Longueville still survive, and if he was any descendant of the favorite "De Longueville" of the olden time.

ABREDONENSIS.

_Quotations wanted._--

(1.) "Never ending, still beginning."

(2.) "Chew the bitter cud of disappointment."

Whence?

C. MANSFIELD INGLEBY.

Birmingham.

_Symon Patrick, Bishop of Ely--Durham--Weston--Jephson._--In a small autobiography of Symon Patrick, the bishop's wife is stated to have been _Penelope Jephson_, grandchild of Lady Durham of Borstall. Can any of your readers inform me who this Lady Durham was?

Penelope Jephson was daughter of Sir Cornelius (?) Jephson, I suppose of Mallow in Ireland.

One of Bishop Patrick's granddaughters, Penelope, married Edward Weston, Under-Secretary of State, of Corkenhatch (Herts?). Query, Who was he, and are there any descendants of this marriage?

K. G.

_The Heveninghams of Suffolk and Norfolk._--This ancient family traces its pedigree through twenty-five knights in succession to Galtir Heveninghame, who lived when Canute was king of England, ann. 1020. (See Harleian MSS. 1449. fol. 91 b.; and Southey's _Doctor_, &c.)

From one of those knights, Sir John Hevenyngham (ob. 1536), descended a collateral branch, represented by Walter Heveningham of Pipe Hall and Aston estates, Staffordshire (1562), who married Annela, daughter of Fitzherbert the Judge. His eldest son was Nicholas, who married Eliza, daughter of Sir John Beevor; and the eldest son of the last-named was Sir Walter Heveningham (1612, ob. 1691).

Now I should feel greatly obliged to any of your readers if, from any of the published or written documents relating to the county of Stafford, or from any other source, they could favour me with answers to the following Queries:

1. Whom did Sir Walter Heveningham marry? His second son married the widow of Sir Edward Simeon, Bart.; but

2. What was the name of Sir Walter's eldest son, and whom did he marry? The issue of this {104} latter marriage was Charles Heveningham of Lichfield (ob. 1782), who married a daughter of Robinson of Appleby, and John Heveningham.

A CHIP OF THE OLD BLOCK.

_Lady Percy, Wife of Hotspur (Daughter of Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March)._--Upon what authority does Miss Strickland say (_Lives of the Queens of England_, vol. iv. p. 300.) that it is stated "by all ancient heralds" that this lady died without issue? What herald can say this without bastardising the second Earl of Northumberland? This assertion is a very sweeping one, and I have sought in vain for the statement said to be made by all heralds.

G.

_Shape of Coffins._--It would be interesting to ascertain in what localities any peculiar form of coffin is used?

In Devonshire, particularly among the farmers and poorer classes, the _ridged_ coffin is very general, the end being gabled. The top, instead of being flat with one board, is made of two boards, like the double roof of a house; in other respects the shape is of the common form. The idea is, that such coffins resist much longer the weight of the superincumbent earth; but there can be no doubt that it is a very ancient shape. Many years ago I heard that in some parish in this county the coffin was shaped like a flat-bottomed boat; the boat shape is known to have been an old form.

H. T. ELLACOMBE.

Clyst St. George.

_St. George Family Pictures._--In Gough's _Sepulchral Monuments_, vol. iii. p. 77., it is mentioned, with reference to the estate of Hatley St. George, in county of Cambridge, that, at the sale of the house in 1782, "The family pictures were removed to Mr. Pearce's house at Cople, Bedford." Can any one tell me if the family pictures here spoken of were those of the St. George family (which inhabited the house for six hundred years); and if so, what has become of them?

R. A. S. O.

Ceylon, June 11, 1853.

_Caley (John), "Ecclesiastical Survey of the Possessions, &c. of the Bishop of St. David's," 8vo. 1812._--The above is said, in a bookseller's catalogue, to be privately printed. It is unknown to the bishop of the diocese and Mr. Black. Can any of your readers give any information about it?

JOHN MARTIN.

Froxfield.

_Adamson's "Lusitania Illustrata."_--Is there any prospect of Mr. Adamson continuing his _Lusitania Illustrata_? Could that accomplished Portuguese student kindly inform me if there is any better insight into Portuguese literature than that contained in Bouterweck's _Geschichte der Poesie und Beredsamkeit_?

W. M. M.

_Blotting-paper._--When did blotting-paper first come into use. Carlyle, in his _Life of Cromwell_, twice repeats that it was not known in those days. Is not this a mistake? I have a piece which I am able to refer to 1670.

SPERIEND.

_Poetical Versions of the Fragments in Athenaeus._--Can any of your correspondents inform me of the locus of any of these, in addition to _Blackwood_, xxxvi., and _Fraser's Magazine_?

P. J. F. GANTILLON, B.A.

* * * * *

Replies.

ROBERT DRURY.

(Vol. v., p. 533.; Vol. vii., p. 485.)

Under the conviction that Robert Drury was a real character, and his _Madagascar_ a true narrative of his shipwreck, sufferings, and captivity, I crave your permission to give a few additional reasons why I think he should be discharged from the fictitious, and admitted into the catalogue of real and _bona fide_ English travellers.

I have before stated that Drury did not skulk in the background when he published his book in 1727; but, on the contrary, invited the public to Tom's Coffee-house, where he engaged to satisfy the incredulous, and resolve the doubting. By the 3rd edition of _Madagascar_, 1743, it farther appears that he continued "for some years before his death" to resort to the above-named house; "at which place several inquisitive gentlemen received from his own mouth the confirmation of those particulars which seemed dubious, or carried with them the air of romance." The period was certainly unpropitious for any but a writer of fiction, and Drury seems to have anticipated no higher rank for his _Treatise_, in point of authenticity, than that occupied by the several members of the Robinson Crusoe school. He, however, positively affirms it to be "a plain honest narrative of the matter of fact;" which is endorsed in the following terms by "Capt. William Mackett:"

"This is to certify, that Robert Drury, fifteen years a slave in Madagascar, now living in London, was redeemed from thence and brought into England, his native country, by myself. I esteem him an honest industrious man, of good reputation, and do firmly believe that the account he gives of his strange and surprising adventures is genuine and authentic."

Mackett was a commander in the E. I. Comp. service; and the condenser of Drury's MSS., after showing the opportunities the Captain had of assuring himself upon the points he certifies to, characterises him as a well-known person, of the highest integrity and honour: a man, indeed, as unlikely to be imposed upon, as to be guilty of lending himself to others, to carry out a deception upon the public. {105}

Mr. Burton, in his lately published "Narratives," points out another source of information regarding Drury, in the _Gent. Mag._ for 1769, where will be found an account of W. Benbow; in this, allusion is made to his brother John Benbow, who was wrecked with Drury in the "Degrave" Indiaman, on Madagascar. W. D., who communicates the information to SYLVANUS URBAN, asserts that he recollects hearing the MS. Journal of this John Benbow read; and that it afforded to his mind a strong confirmation of the truthfulness of Drury's _Madagascar_. He adds the following curious particulars anent our subject:--"Robin Drury," he says, "among those who knew him (and he was known to many, being _a porter at the East India House_), had the character of a downright honest man, without any appearance of fraud or imposture. He was known to a friend of mine (now living), who frequently called upon him at his house in Lincoln's Inn Fields, which were not then enclosed. He tells me he has often seen him throw a javelin there, and strike a small mark at a surprising distance. It is a pity," he adds, "that this work of Drury's is not better known, and a new edition published[1] (it having been long out of print); as it contains much more particular and authentic accounts of that large and barbarous island, than any yet given; and, though it is true, it is in many respects as entertaining as Gulliver or Crusoe."

It may farther be mentioned that the French, who have a good acquaintance with Madagascar, "have found Drury's statement of the geography, the natural history, the manners of the people, and the conspicuous men of the time, in Madagascar, remarkably accurate." (_Bib. Gen. des Voyages_, Paris, 1808.) Archdeacon Wrangham says: "Duncombe (?) calls Drury's _Madagascar_ the best and most genuine account ever given of the island;" and the missionary Ellis quoted Drury without the slightest suspicion that any doubt hangs over the genuineness of his narrative. Drury's account of himself runs thus:--"I, Robert Drury," he says, when commencing his book, "was born on July 24, 1687, in Crutched Friars, London, where my father then lived; but soon after removed to the Old Jury, near Cheapside, where he was well known, and esteemed for keeping that noted house called 'The King's Head,' or otherwise distinguished by the name of the Beef-stake House; and to which there was all my father's time a great resort of merchants, and gentlemen of the best rank and character." To this famous resort of the Revolutionary and Augustan ages I lately betook myself for _my stake_, in the hope that _mine host_ might be found redolent of the traditional glory of his house. But alas! that worthy, although firmly believing in the antiquity of the King's Head, and of there being _some book_ in existence that would prove it, could not say of his own knowledge whether the king originally complimented by his predecessor was Harry the Eighth or George the Fourth!

In conclusion, I would just add, is not the circumstance of our subject holding the humble post of porter at the East India House confirmatory of that part of his story which represents him as one of the crew of Hon. Company's ship "Degrave," whose wreck upon Madagascar I take to be an undoubted fact? What so probable as this recognition, in a small provision for a man in his old age, whose misfortunes commenced while in their service? Finally, to me the whole narrative of Robert Drury seems so probable, and so well vouched for, that I have given in my adhesion thereto by removing him to a _higher shelf_ in my library than that occupied by such apocryphal persons as Crusoe, Quarle, Boyle, Falconer, and a host of the like.

J. O.

[Footnote 1: The editions of _Madagascar_ known to me are those of 1727, 1731, and 1743, by the original publisher, Meadows, Hull, 1807, and London, 1826.]

* * * * *

THE TERMINATION -BY.

(Vol. vii., p. 536.)

I would suggest a doubt, whether the suffix _-by_, in the names of places, affords us any satisfactory evidence, _per se_, of their exclusively Danish origin. This termination is of no unfrequent occurrence in districts, both in this country and elsewhere, to which the Danes, _properly so called_, were either utter strangers, or wherein they at no time established any permanent footing. The truth is, there seems to be a fallacy in this Danish theory, in so far as it rests upon the testimony of language; for, upon investigation, we generally find that the word or phrase adduced in its support was one recognised, not in any single territory alone, but throughout the whole of Scandinavia, whose different tribes, amid some trifling variations of dialect, which can now be scarcely ascertained, were all of them as readily intelligible to one another as are, at this day, the inhabitants of two adjoining English counties. If this were so, it appears that, in the case before us, nothing can be proved from the existence of the expression, beyond the fact of its _Norse_ origin; and our reasonable and natural course is, if we would arrive at its true signification, to refer at once to the parent tongue of the Scandinavian nations, spoken in common, and during a long-continued period, amid the snows of distant Iceland, on the mountains of Norway, the plains of Denmark, and in the forests of Sweden.

This ancient and widely-diffused language was the Icelandic, Norman, or Doensk tunga,--that in which were written the Eddas and Skalda, the {106} Njala and Heimskringla. In it we have the suffix _by_, under the forms of the verbs _ek by_, _ek bio_, or _at bua_, and _ek byggi_ or _byggia_, manere, habitare, incolere, struere, edificare; also the nouns _bu_ (Ang.-Sax. _by_, Dan. _bo_, _by_), domus, habitaculum; and _bui_, incola, colonus, vicinus; closely assimilated expressions all of them, in which the roots are found of our English words _bide_, _abide_, _be_, _by_ (denoting proximity), _build_, _borough_, _bury_ (Edmondsbury), _barrow_, _byre_, _bower_, _abode_, _&c._ Now, these explanations undoubtedly confirm the interpretation assigned by MR. E. S. TAYLOR to his terminating syllable; and it is probable enough that the villages to which he refers received their titles from the Danes, who, we know, on the subjugation of its former inhabitants, possessed themselves of the country in which they are situated. This, however, is a begging the question; for, resting simply on the evidence of the suffix, it is equally probable that these places preserved the names assigned to them by their former northern colonists. But our _by_ or _bua_, Ang.-Sax. _bugan_ and _beon_, and the Germ. (ich) _bin_ and _bauen_, have all been referred by learned philologists to the Greek [Greek: phuo], or to [Greek: bioo], or to [Greek: pauo, pauomai]; and the word has affinities scattered throughout numerous languages (there are the Camb.-Brit. _bydio_, habitare, and _byw_, vivere, for instance), so that we are surrounded by difficulties, if we attempt to establish from its use any such point as that involved in your correspondent's Query.

COWGILL.

* * * * *

THE ROSICRUCIANS.

(Vol. vii., p. 619.)

When Pope, in dedicating his _Rape of the Lock_ to Mrs. Arabella Fermor, was desirous of putting within the reach of that lady the information which MR. E. S. TAYLOR has sought through your pages, he wrote:

"The _Rosicrucians_ are a people that I must bring you acquainted with. The best account of them I know is in a French book called _Le Compte de Gabalis_, which, both in its title and size, is so like a novel, that many of the fair sex have read it for one by mistake."--_Dedicatory Letter to the Rape of the Lock._

This celebrated work was written by the Abbe Montfaucon de Villars, and published in 1670. "C'est une partie (says Voltaire, _Siecle de Louis XIV._) de l'ancienne mythologie des Perses. L'auteur fut tue en 1675 d'un coup de pistolet. On dit que les sylphes l'avaient assassine pour avoir revele leurs mysteres." In 1680, an English translation appeared (_penes me_), entitled:

"The Count of Gabalis; or the Extravagant Mysteries of the Cabalists, exposed in Five Pleasant Discourses on the Secret Sciences. Done into English by P. A. (Peter Ayres), Gent., with short Animadversions. London printed for B. M., printer to the Royal Society of the Sages at the Signe of the Rosy Crusian."

The original French work went through several editions: my own copy bears the imprint of _Amsterdam_, 1715, and has appended to it _La Suite du Compte de Gabalis, ou Entretiens sur les Sciences secretes, touchant la nouvelle Philosophie_," &c.

So much in deference to Pope,--whose only object, however, was to make Mrs. Fermor acquainted with so much of Rosicrucianism as was necessary to the comprehension of the machinery of his poem. MR. E. S. TAYLOR must go farther afield if he is desirous of "earning the _vere adeptus_," and becoming, like Butler's _Ralpho_--