Part 2
"The Peruvian part containeth all the southern tract, and is tyed to the Mexican by the Isthmus or Strait of Darien, being no more than 17, or, as others say, in the narrowest place, but 12 miles broad, from the north to the south sea. Many have mentioned to the Council of Spain the cutting of a navigable channel through this small Isthmus, so to shorten the voyage to China and the Moluccoes. But the kings of Spain have not yet attempted to do it; some say lest in the work he should lose those few Indians which are left (would to God it were so, that they were or had been so careful and tender of the poor Indians' lives, more populous would that vast and spacious country be at this day), but others say he hath not attempted it lest the passage by the Cape Bona Esperanza (Good Hope) being left off, those seas might become a receptacle for pirates. However, this hath not been attempted by the Spaniards; they give not for reason any extraordinary great charge, for that would soon be recompensed with the speedie and easie conveying that way the commodities from S. to N. seas."
This bears reference to projects before 1625, or during his residence in S. America, between 1625-1637; but Gage could hardly have understood the nature of the Spanish character, and the genius of the government, to speculate upon the cause of their neglect of every useful enterprise for the promotion of commerce and public good.
S. H.
* * * * *
FOLK LORE.
_Legends of the County Clare._--On the west coast of Ireland, near the Cliffs of Moher, at some distance out in the bay, the waves appear continually breaking in white foam even on the calmest day. The tradition among the country people is, that a great city was swallowed up there for some great crime, and that it becomes visible once every seven years. And if the person who sees it could keep his eyes fixed on it till he reached it, it would then be restored, and he would obtain great wealth. The man who related the legend stated farther, that some years ago some labourers were at work in a field on the hill side in view of the bay; and one of them, happening to cast his eyes seaward, saw the city in all its splendour emerge from the deep. He called to his companions to look at it; but though they were close to him, he could not attract their attention: at last, he turned round to see why they would not come; but on looking back, when he had succeeded in attracting their attention, the city had disappeared.
The Welsh legend of the Islands of the Blessed, which can only be seen by a person who stands on a turf from St. David's churchyard, bears a curious coincidence to the above. It is not impossible that there may have been some foundation for the vision of the enchanted city at Moher in the _Fata Morgana_, very beautiful spectacles of which have been seen on other parts of the coast of Ireland.
FRANCIS ROBERT DAVIES.
_Moon Superstitions_ (Vol. viii., p. 79.).--In this age of fact and science, it is remarkable that even with the well-informed the old faith in the "change of the moon" as a prognostic of fair and foul weather still keeps its hold. W. W. asks "have we any proof of" the "correctness" of this faith? To suppose that the weather varies with the amount of {146} illuminated surface on the moon would make the change in the weather vary with the amount of moonshine, which of course is absurd, as in that case the clouds would have much more to do with the question than the moon's shadow. But still it may be said the moon may influence the weather as it is supposed to cause the tides. In answer to this I beg to state the opinion of Dr. Ick, who was for upwards of ten years the curator of the Birmingham Philosophical Institute, an excellent meteorologist, geologist, and botanist. He assured me that after the closest and most accurate observation of the moon and the weather, he had arrived at the conclusion that _there is not the slightest observable dependence between them_.
C. MANSFIELD INGLEBY.
Birmingham.
_Warwickshire Folk Lore._--The only certain remedy for the bite of an adder is to kill the offending reptile, and apply some of its fat to the wound. Whether the fat should be raw or melted down, my informant did not say, but doubtless the same effect would be produced in either case.
If a pig is killed in the wane of the moon, the bacon is sure to shrink in the boiling; if, on the other hand, the pig is killed when the moon is at the full, the bacon will swell.
ERICA.
Warwick.
_Northamptonshire Folk Lore._--There is a singular custom prevailing in some parts of Northamptonshire, and perhaps some of your correspondents may be able to mention other places where a similar practice exists. If a female is afflicted with fits, nine pieces of silver money and nine threehalfpences are collected from nine bachelors: the silver money is converted into a ring to be worn by the afflicted person, and the threehalfpences (_i. e._ 13½_d._) are paid to the maker of the ring, an inadequate remuneration for his labour, but which he good-naturedly accepts. If the afflicted person be a male, the contributions are levied upon females.
E. H.
_Slow-worm Superstition_ (Vol. viii., p. 33.).--As a child I was always told by the servants that if _any serpent_ was "scotched, not killed," it would revive if it could reach its hole before sunset, but that otherwise it must die. Hence the custom, so universal, of hanging any serpent on a tree after killing it.
SELEUCUS.
_A Devonshire Charm for the Thrush._--On visiting one of my parishioners, whose infant was ill with the thrush, I asked her what medicine she had given the child? She replied, she had done nothing to it but say the eighth Psalm over it. I found that her cure was to repeat the eighth Psalm over the infant three times, three days running; and on my hesitating a doubt as to the efficacy of the remedy, she appealed to the case of another of her children who had suffered badly from the thrush, but had been cured by the use of no other means. If it was said "with the virtue," it was, she declared, an unfailing cure. The mention, in this Psalm, of "the mouths of babes and sucklings," I suppose led to its selection.
W. FRASER.
Tor-Mohun.
* * * * *
OLD JOKES.
Every man ought to read the jest-books, that he may not make himself disagreeable by repeating "old Joes" as the very last good things. One book of this class is little more than the copy of another as to the points, with a change of the persons; and the same joke, slightly varied, appears in as many different countries as the same fairy-tale. Seven years ago I found at Prague the "Joe" of the Irishman saying that there were a hundred judges on the bench, because there was one with two cyphers. The valet-de-place told me that when the Emperor and Metternich were together they were called "the council of ten," because they were _eins und zero_.
It is interesting to trace a joke back, of which process I send an example. In the very clever version of the Chancellor of Oxford's speech on introducing the new doctors (_Punch_, No. 622.) are these lines:
"En Henleium! en Stanleium! Hic eminens prosator: Ille, filius pulchro patre, hercle pulchrior orator; Demosthenes in herbâ, _sed in ore retinens illos_ _Quos, antequam peroravit, Græcus respuit lapillos._"
Ebenezer Grubb, in his description of the opposition in 1814, thus notices Mr. F. Douglas:
"He is a forward and frequent speaker; remarkable for a graceful inclination of the upper part of his body in advance of the lower, and speaketh, I suspect _(after the manner of an ancient), with pebbles in his mouth_."--_New Whig Guide_, 1819, p. 47.
In Foote's _Patron_, Sir Roger Dowlas, an East India proprietor, who has sought instruction in oratory from Sir Thomas Lofty, is introduced to the _conversazione_:--
"_Sir Thomas._ Sir Roger, be seated. This gentleman has, in common with the greatest orator the world ever saw, a small natural infirmity; he stutters a little: but I have prescribed the same remedy that Demosthenes used, and don't despair of a radical cure. Well, sir, have you digested those general rules?
_Sir Roger._ Pr-ett-y well, I am obli-g'd to you, Sir Th-omas.
_Sir Thomas._ Did you open at the last general court?
_Sir Roger._ I att-empt-ed fo-ur or five times.
_Sir Thomas._ What hindered your progress?
_Sir Roger._ _The pe-b-bles._
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_Sir Thomas._ _Oh, the pebbles in his mouth_: but they are only put in to practise in private: _you should take them out when you are addressing the public_."
I cannot trace the joke farther, but as Foote, though so rich in wit, was a great borrower, it might not be new in 1764.
H. B. C.
Garrick Club.
* * * * *
AN INTERPOLATION OF THE PLAYERS: TOBACCO.
I have witnessed the representation of the _Twelfth Night_ as often, during the last five-and-forty years, as I have had an opportunity; and, in every instance, Sir Toby, Sir Andrew, and the Clown, in their rollicking orgies, _smoke tobacco_. Now, this must be an "interpolation of the players;" for not only was tobacco unknown in Illyria, at the period of the story, but _Shakspeare does not once name tobacco in his works, and, therefore_, was not likely to give a stage-direction for the use of it. The great poet is freely blamed for anachronisms; it is but fair he should have due credit when he avoids them. The stories of his plays are all antecedent to his own time, therefore he never mentions either the _drinking of tobacco_, or the tumultuous scenes of the _ordinary_ which belonged to it, and which are so constantly met with in his cotemporary dramatists. I see there is a note in my commonplace-book, after some remarks upon Green's _Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay_, "that this play, though written by a pedant, and a Master of Arts, contains more anachronisms than any one play of Shakspeare's."
Can any of your correspondents learned in stage traditions say when this "smoking interpolation" was first made?
* * * * *
But, Sir, I think I shall surprise some of your readers by pointing out another instance of the absence of tobacco or smoking. In the _Arabian Night's Entertainments_, which are said to be such faithful pictures of oriental manners, there is no mention of the pipe. Neither is coffee to be met with in those tales, so delightful to all ages. We with difficulty imagine an oriental without his _chibauk_; and yet it is certain they knew nothing of this luxury before the sixteenth century. At present, such is the almost imperious necessity felt by the Turk for smoking and coffee, that as soon as the gun announces the setting of the sun, during the fast of the Ramada, before he thinks of satisfying his craving stomach with any solid food, he takes his cup of coffee and lights his pipe.--As I think it dishonest to deck ourselves with knowledge that is not self-acquired, I confess to the having but just read this "note" in the last number of the _Revue des Deux Mondes_, in a fine work upon America by the celebrated savant, M. Ampère.
W. ROBSON.
Stockwell.
* * * * *
Minor Notes.
_Curious Epitaph._--In the _Diary of Thomas Moore_, Charles Lamb is said at a certain dinner party to have "quoted an epitaph by Clio Rickman, in which, after several lines in the usual jog-trot style of epitaph, he continued thus:
'He well perform'd the husband's, father's part, And knew immortal Hudibras by heart.'"
There is an epitaph in the churchyard of Newhaven, Sussex, in which the last of these two lines occurs, but which does not answer in other respects to the character of the one quoted by Lamb. On the contrary, it is altogether eminently quaint, peculiar, and consistent. The stone is to the memory of Thomas Tipper, who departed this life May the 14th, 1785, aged fifty-four years; and the upper part is embellished with a representation, in bas-relief, of the drawbridge which crosses the river, whence it might be inferred that the comprehensive genius of Mr. Tipper included engineering and architecture. The epitaph runs thus:
"Reader, with kind regard this grave survey, Nor heedless pass where Tipper's ashes lay. Honest he was, ingenuous, blunt and kind, And dared do what few dare do--speak his mind. Philosophy and History well he knew, Was versed in Physick and in Surgery too: The best old Stingo he both brew'd and sold, Nor did one knavish act to get his gold. He play'd through life a varied comic part, And knew immortal Hudibras by heart. Reader, in real truth this was the man: Be better, wiser, laugh more if you can."
Is there any reason for supposing this epitaph to have been written by Clio Rickman; and is anything known of Mr. Tipper beyond the biography of his tombstone?
G. J. DE WILDE.
_Enigmatical Epitaph._--I offer for solution an enigma, copied from a tomb in the churchyard of Christchurch in Hampshire:
"WE WERE NOT SLAYNE BUT RAYSD; RAYSD NOT TO LIFE, BVT TO BE BVRIED TWICE BY MEN OF STRIFE. WHAT REST COVLD ᵀᴴ LIVING HAVE, WHEN DEAD HAD NONE? AGREE AMONGST YOV, HERE WE TEN ARE ONE. HEN. ROGERS DIED APRIL 17, 1641.
I. R."
The popular legend is, that the ten men perished by the falling in of a gravel-pit, and that their remains were buried together. This, however, will not account for the "men of strife."
Is it not probable that, in the time of the civil wars, the bodies might have been disinterred for the sake of the leaden coffins, and then deposited in their present resting-place?
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The tomb may have been erected some time afterwards by "I. R.," probably a relative of the "Henry Rogers," the date of whose death is commemorated.
T. J.
Bath.
_Books worthy to be reprinted_ (Vol. vii., pp. 153. 203.).--In addition to those previously mentioned in "N. & Q.," there is one for which a crying necessity exists for a new edition, namely, _The Complaynt of Scotland_. It is often advertised and otherwise sought for; and when found, can only be had at a most extravagant price. It was originally written in 1548; and in 1801, a limited impression, edited by Dr. Leyden, was published; and in 1829, "Critiques upon it by David Herd, and others, with observations in answer by Dr. Leyden," to the number of seventy copies. _The Complaynt of Scotland_ and _Sir Tristrem_, an edition of which was edited by Sir Walter Scott, and published in 1804, are two of the oldest works of which the literature of Scotland can boast.
INVERNESS.
_Napoleon's Thunderstorm._--The passage of the Niemen by the French army, and its consequent entry on Russian territory, may be said to have been Napoleon's first step towards defeat and ruin. A terrible thunderstorm occurred on that occasion, according to M. Ségur's account of the Russian campaign.
When Napoleon commenced the retreat, by which he yielded all the country beyond the Elbe (and which, therefore, may be reckoned a second step towards his downfall), it was accompanied by a thunderstorm more remarkable from occurring at such a season. Odelben says:
"C'était un phenomène bien extraordinaire dans un pareil saison, et avec le froid qu'on venait d'éprouver," &c.--Odelben, _Camp. de 1813_, vol. i. p. 289.
The first step towards his second downfall, or third towards complete ruin, was his advance upon the British force at Quatre-Bras, June 17, 1815. This also was accompanied by an awful thunderstorm, which (although gathering all the forenoon) commenced at the very moment he made his attack on the British rear-guard (about two p. m.), when the first gun fired was instantaneously responded to by a tremendous peal of thunder.
Thunder, to Wellington, was the precursor of victory and triumph. Witness the above-mentioned introduction to the victory of Waterloo; the terrible thunder, that scattered the horses of the dragoons, the eve of Salamanca; also, the night preceding Sabugal. And perhaps some of the Duke's old companions in arms may be able to add to the category.
A. C. M.
Exeter.
_Istamboul--Constantinople._--Mr. (afterwards Sir George) Wheler, who took holy orders and became rector of Houghton-le-Spring in the diocese of Durham, makes the following remarks in his _Journey into Greece, &c._ (fol., Lond. 1682), p. 178.:
"Constantinople is now vulgarly called _Stambol_ by the Turks; but by the Greeks more often _Istampoli_, which must needs be a corruption from the Greek ... either from Constantinopolis, which in process of time might be corrupted into _Stanpolis_ or _Istanpoli_; or rather, from it being called πόλις κατ' ἐξοχήνο. For the Turks, hearing the Greeks express their going to Constantinople by εἰς τὴν πόλιν, which they pronounce Is-tin-polin, and often for brevity's sake Stinpoli, might soon ignorantly call it _Istanpoli_ or _Stambol_, according as either of them came into vogue first. And therefore I think theirs is a groundless fancy who fetch it from the Turkish word _Istamboal_, which signifies a city full of or abounding in the true faith, the name being so apparently of Greek original."
W. S. G.
Newcastle-on-Tyne.
* * * * *
Queries.
STRUT-STOWERS, AND YEATHERS OR YADDERS.
In the Collection of divers curious Historical Pieces printed by the Rev. Francis Peck at the end of his _Memoirs of Oliver Cromwell_, is--
"Some account of the Murder of the Hermit of Eskdale-side, near Whitby, in Com. Ebor. by William de Bruce (Lord of Ugle Barnby), Ralph de Peircy (Lord of Snealon), and one Allatson, a Gent., and of the remarkable penance which the Hermit enjoyned them before he died."
The story is briefly this:--On the 16th October, 15 Henry II., De Bruce, De Peircy, and Allatson were hunting the wild boar in Eskdale-side, where was a chapel and hermitage, in which lived a monk of Whitby, who was a hermit. The boar being hotly pursued by the dogs, ran into the chapel and there laid down and died. The hermit shut the door on the hounds, who stood at bay without. The three gentlemen coming up, flew into a great fury, and ran with their boar-staves at the hermit and so wounded him that he ultimately died. The three gentlemen, fearing his death, took sanctuary at Scarborough, but the Abbot of Whitby being in great favour with the king, removed them out of sanctuary, whereby they became liable to the law. The dying hermit (he survived till the 8th December), on the abbot's proposing to put them to death, suggested the following penance, to which, in order to save their lives and goods, they consented, and to which the abbot likewise agreed:
"You and yours shall hold your lands of the Abbat of Whitby and his successors after this manner, viz. upon the eve [or morrow before] Ascension Day, you, or some of you, shall come to the wood of Stray-Head, which is in Eskdale-side, by sun-rising, and there shall {149} the officer of the abbat blow his horn, that ye may know how to find him. And he shall deliver to you, William de Bruce, ten stakes, eleven strut-stowers, and eleven yeathers, to be cut by you, and those that come for you, with a knife of a penny price. And you Ralph de Peircy, shall take one and twenty of each sort, to be cut in the same manner. And you, Allatson, shall take nine of each sort, to be cut as aforesaid. And then ye shall take them on your backs, and carry them to the town of Whitby, and take care to be there before nine of the clock, and at the same hour, if it be a full sea, to cease your service. But, if it be low water at nine of the clock, then each of you shall, the same hour, set your stakes at the edge of the water, each stake a yard from the other, and so yeather them with your yeathers, and stake them on each side with your strut-stowers, that they may stand three tides, without removing by the force of the water. And each of you shall really do, perform, and execute this service yearly at the hour appointed, except it be a full sea, when this service shall cease; in remembrance that ye did most cruelly slay me. And that ye may the more seriously and fervently call upon God for mercy, and repent unfeignedly of your sins, and do good works, the officer of Eskdale-side shall blow, Out on you! Out on you! Out on you! for this heinous crime of yours. And if you or yours shall refuse this service at the aforesaid hour, when it shall not be a full sea, then you shall forfeit all your lands to the Abbat of Whitby and his successors."
There is a similar account, with verbal and other variations, "From a printed copy published at Whitby a few years ago," in Blount's _Jocular Tenures_, by Beckwith, pp. 557-560. In that account the word, which in Mr. Peck's account is "yeathers," is "yadders." Mr. Beckwith states, "This service is still annually performed."
Sir Walter Scott (_Marmion_, Canto II. st. 13.) thus alludes to the legend:
"Then Whitby's nuns exulting told, How to their house three Barons bold Must menial service do; While horns blow out a note of shame, And monks cry 'Fye upon your name! In wrath, for loss of silvan game, Saint Hilda's priest ye slew.'-- 'This on Ascension Day, each year, While labouring on our harbour pier, Must Herbert, Bruce, and Percy hear.'"
In note 2. C. the popular account printed and circulated at Whitby is given. It is substantially the same with that given by Beckwith, but for "strut-stowers" we have "strout-stowers;" and for "yadders" we have "yethers." It appears, also, that the service was not at that time performed by the proprietors in person; and that part of the lands charged therewith were then held by a gentleman of the name of Herbert.
I shall be glad if any of your correspondents will elucidate the terms strut-stowers, and yeathers or yadders.
C. H. COOPER.
Cambridge.
* * * * *
Minor Queries.
_Archbishop Parker's Correspondence._--I am now engaged in carrying out a design which has been long entertained by the Parker Society, that of publishing the Correspondence of the distinguished prelate whose name that Society bears. If any of your readers can favour me with references to any letters of the archbishop, either unpublished, or published in works but little known, I shall feel extremely obliged. I add my own address, in order that I may not encumber your pages with mere references. Any information beyond a reference will probably be as interesting to your readers generally as to myself.
JOHN BRUCE.
5. Upper Gloucester Street, Dorset Square.
_Amor Nummi._--Can any of your correspondents inform me as to the authorship of the following verses?
_Amor Nummi._
"'The love of money is the root of evil, Sending the folks in cart-loads to the devil.' So says an ancient proverb, as we're told, And spoke the truth, we [no?] doubt, in days of old. But now, thanks to our good friend, BILLY PITT, This wholesome golden adage will not sit [fit?]; On English ground the vice dissolves in vapour, Being at best only a love--of paper."
It must have appeared in an English ministerial paper about the year 1805.--From the _Navorscher_.
DIONYSIOS.
_The Number Nine._--Can any of your mathematical correspondents inform me of the law and reason of the following singular property of the numbers? If from any number above nine the same number be subtracted written backwards, the addition of the figures of the remainder will always be a multiple of nine; for instance--
972619 916279 ------ 56340 the sum of which is 18, or 9 × 2. ======