Part 3

925012 210529 ------ 714483 the sum of which is 27, or 9 × 3. ======

83 38 -- 45 the sum of which is 9. ==

JOHN LAMMENS.

_Position of Font._--The usual and very significant position of the font is near the church door. But there is one objection to this, viz. that the benches being best arranged facing the chancel, the people cannot without much confusion see the baptisms. This being so, perhaps a better place {150} for the font is at the entrance of the chancel. The holy rite, so edifying to the congregation, as well as profitable to the recipient, can then be duly seen; and the position is tolerably symbolical, expressing as it were "the way that is opened for us into the holiest of all." I am curious to know if there are any ancient examples of this position, and how far the canon sanctions it, which directs that the font be set up in "the ancient usual _places_" [plural]? While on the subject let me put another Query. The Rubric directs that the font be "then," _i. e._ just before the baptism, filled with pure water. In what vessel is the water brought, and who fills the font? What are the precedents in this matter? Rules, I think, there are none.

A. A. D.

_Aix Ruochim or Romans Ioner._--On the verge of the cliff at Kingsgate, near the North Foreland, is a small castle or fort of chalk and flint, known by the above name. Can any of your readers give any information regarding the date of the erection of this curious edifice? Some of the local guidebooks attribute it to the time of Vortigern, or about 448; but this seems an almost fabulous antiquity.

A. O. H.

Blackheath.

_"Lessons for Lent," &c._--_Lessons for Lent, or Instructions on the Two Sacraments of Penance and the B. Eucharist_, printed in the year 1718. Who was the author?

H.

_"La Branche des réaus Lignages."_--Have any of your correspondents met with a romance, of which I have a MS. copy, entitled "La Branche des réaus Lignages?" The MS. I possess is evidently a modern copy, and begins thus:

"Et tens de celi mandement Duquel j'ai fait ramembrement Et qu'aucun homme d'avis oit Jehan, qui Henaut justisoit Guerréoit et grevoit yglises En la garde le roi commises Ne ... li vouloit faire hommage."

The poem is divided by numbers, probably referring to the pages of the original: beginning with 1292, and ending with 1307. It is also evident, from the first verses themselves, that I have only a fragment before me.--From the _Navorscher_.

GANSKE.

_Marriage Service._--Are there any parishes in which the custom of presenting the fee, together with the ring, in the marriage service, as ordered by the rubric, is observed?

E. W.

_"Czar" or "Tsar."_--Whence the derivation of the title _Czar_ or _Tsar_? I know that some suppose it to be derived from Cæsar, while others trace it from the terminal _-sar_ or _-zar_ in the names of the kings of Babylon and Assyria: as Phalas-_sar_, Nebuchadnez-_zar_, &c. In Persian, _sar_ means the supreme power. I have heard much argument about its origin, and would be much obliged if any reader of "N. & Q." could state the correct derivation of the word.

By which Emperor of Russia was the title first assumed?

J. S. A.

Old Broad Street.

_Little Silver._--There are several places in Devonshire so called, villages or hamlets. It is said, they are alway situated in the immediate neighbourhood of a Roman, or some other ancient camp. Hence, some people suppose the name is given to these localities from the number of silver coins frequently found there.

Will any of your correspondents throw light on this subject?

As every one knows, there is also a Silverton in Devonshire--Silver-town _par excellence_. Is it in any way connected with the "Little Silvers?"

A. C. M.

Exeter.

_On Æsop's (?) Fable of washing the Blackamoor._--Is it possible the well-known fable was a real occurrence? The following extract would seem to allude to an analogous fact:

"Counting the labour as endlesse as the maids in the Strand, which endeavoured by washing the Black-a-more to make him white."--_Case of Sir Ignoramus of Cambridge_, 1648, p. 23.

R. C. WARDE.

Kidderminster.

_Wedding Proverb._--Is the following distich known in any part of England?--

"To change the name, but not the letter, Is to marry for worse, and not for better."

I met with it in an American book, but it was probably an importation.

SPINSTER.

_German Phrase._--What is the origin of a sarcastic German phrase often used?

"Er erwartet dass der Himmel voll Bassgeigen längt."

L. M. M. R.

_German Heraldry._--Where can I refer to a book in which the armorial bearings of all the principal German families are engraved?

SPERIEND.

_Leman Family._--About the middle of the seventeenth century, say 1650 to 1670, two gentlemen left England for America, who are supposed to have been brothers or near relatives of Sir John Leman, who was Lord Mayor of London in 1616. Traditions, which have been preserved in manuscript, and which can be traced back over one {151} hundred years, tell of a correspondence which took place between the said Sir John and the widow of one of the brothers, in relation to her returning to England.

The writer of this (a descendant of one of these gentlemen) is anxious to learn _the names of the brothers and near relatives of this Sir John_; and whether any evidence exists of their leaving England for America, &c., &c.; and would feel much indebted to any one who would supply the information through your paper.

R. W. L.

Philadelphia.

_A Cob-wall._--Why do the inhabitants of Devonshire call a wall made of tempered earth, straw, and small pebbles mixed together, a _cob-wall_? Walls so constructed require a foundation of stone or bricks, which is commonly continued to the height of about two feet from the surface of the ground. Has the term _cob_ reference to the fact that such a wall is a superstructure on the foundation of stone or brick?

A. B. C.

_Inscription near Chalcedon._--In 1675, when Sir Geo. Wheler and his travelling companion visited Chalcedon (as recorded in his _Voyage from Venice to Constantinople_, fol., Lond. 1682, p. 209.), it was famous only for the memory of the great council held there in A.D. 327, the twentieth of the reign of Constantine the Great:

"The first thing we did (he says) was to visit the metropolitan church, where they say it was kept; but M. Nanteuil assured us that it was a mile from thence, and that he had there read an inscription that mentioneth it. Besides, it is a small obscure building, incapable to contain such an assembly."

Has the inscription here spoken of been noticed by any traveller, and can any of your readers refer to a copy of it; and say whether it is cotemporary, and whether it has been more recently noticed?

W. S. G.

Newcastle-on-Tyne.

_Domesday Book._--What does the abbreviation glđ, or gelđ, applied to terra, signify? Also, in the description of places, there is frequently a capital letter, B., or M., or S. before it, as in one case, _e. g._ "B. terr. glđ wasta." Can any one inform me what it signifies?

In the case of many parishes, it is stated that there was a church there: is it considered _conclusive_ authority that there was not one, if it is not mentioned in _Domesday Book_?

A. W. H.

_Dotinchem._--What modern town in Holland, or elsewhere, bore or bears the name of Dotinchem, at which is dated a MS. missal I have inspected, written in the fifteenth century? The reason for believing the place to be Dutch is, that the Calendar marks the days of the principal saints of Holland with red letters. There are other indications in the Calendar of the missal having been written in and for the use of a community situated where the influence of Cologne, Liège, Maestricht, and Daventer would have been felt.

Perhaps, should the above Query not be answered in England, some correspondent of your Dutch cotemporary the _Navorscher_ may have the goodness to reply to it.

G. J. R. GORDON.

Sidmouth.

_"Mirrour to all," &c._--Can you refer me to any possessor of the poetical work entitled a _Mirrour to all who love to follow the Wars_ (_or Waves_), 4to.: London, printed by John Wolfe, 1589? A copy was sold by Mr. Rodd for six guineas. (See his Catalogue for 1846.)

H. DELTA.

Oxford.

_Title wanted._--I have a copy of the _Pugna Porcorum_, the margin of which is covered with illustrative and parallel passages, among which is the following:

"Heros Ad magnum se accingit opus ferrumque bifurcum Cote acuit, pinguique perungit acumina lardo; Deinde suis, vasto consurgens corpore, rostrum Perforat et furcam capulo tenus urget, at illa Prominuit rostro summisque in naribus hæsit."

Χοιροχοιρογ. 182.

I shall be much obliged to any one who will give me the full title to the book from which this is quoted, and any account of it.

G. H. W.

_Portrait of Charles I.--Countess Du Barry._--In Bachaumont's _Mémoires Secrets, &c._, I read the following passage under date of March 25, 1771:

"L'impératrice des Russies a fait enlever tout le cabinet de tableaux de M. le Comte de Thiers, amateur distingué, qui avait une très-belle collection en ce genre. M. de Marigny a eu la douleur de voir passer ces richesses chez l'étranger, faute de fonds pour les acquérir pour le compte du roi.

"On distinguait parmi ces tableaux un portrait en pied de Charles I., roi d'Angleterre, original de Vandyk. C'est le seul qui soit resté en France. Madame la Comtesse Dubarri, qui déploie de plus en plus son goût pour les arts, a ordonné de l'acheter: elle l'a payé 24,000 livres. Et sur le reproche qu'on lui faisait de choisir un pareil morceau entre tant d'autres qui auraient dû lui mieux convenir, elle a répondu que c'était un portrait de famille qu'elle retirait. En effet, les Dubarri se prétendent parents de la Maison des Stuards."

Can you give me any account of this portrait of King Charles by Vandyk, for which the Countess Du Barry paid the sum of 1000_l._ sterling?

What grounds are there for the allegation, that the Countess was related to the royal House of Stuart?

HENRY H. BREEN.

St. Lucia.

* * * * *{152}

Minor Queries with Answers.

_"Preparation for Martyrdom."_--Can any of your correspondents discover for me the author of the following work?--

"A Preparation for Martyrdom; a Discourse about the Cause, the Temper, the Assistances, and Rewards of a Martyr of Jesus Christ: in Dialogue betwixt a Minister and a Gentleman his Parishioner. Lond. 1681, 4to."

In order to afford somewhat of a clue to this discovery, I send a few extracts from another anonymous work: _A Letter to the late Author of the_ "_Preparation for Martyrdom_," alluding to various circumstances relating to the author:

"I must confess that I had once as great a veneration for you as for any one [of] your figure in the church; but then you preach'd honestly, and liv'd peaceably; but since pride or ambitious discontent, or some particular respects to some special friends of the adverse party, or something I know not what else, has thrust you upon scribbling, and a design of being popular; since you had forsaken your first love (if ever you had any) to our church and establishment, and appear to be running over _ad partem Donati_, to the disturbers of our church and peace, you must needs pardon this short reflection, though from an old friend, and sometimes a great admirer of you.

"As for the present establishment, you have (you conclude) as much already from that as you are likely to have, but you claw the democratical party, hoping at long run to see an (_English_) Parliament; that is, we must know, one that has no _French_ pensioners shuffled into it to blast the whole business, such as will be govern'd by your instructions; and then Presbytery (you trust) will be turn'd up Trump, the Directory once more take place of the Liturgy, and God knows what become of the Monarchy, and Mr. C. be made a great man.

"What an excellent design was that of your Stipulation, which I heard one say was like a new modell'd Independency. 'Twas intended, I suppose, as an expedient to reduce the sheep of your own flock, which through your default chiefly (as is commonly reported) were gone astray; but because this tool could not work, without the force of a law to move it, therefore by law it must have been establisht, and the whole nation forsooth comprehended under it, and all must have set their instruments to your key, and their voices to the tune of _B--ley_. Oh! had this engine but met with firm footings in Parliament, as was hoped, our _English_ world had been lifted off its pillars long before this day; it had gone round, and in the church all old things had been done away, and everything had appeared new. But, Sir, I trust the foundations of our church stand more sure than to need such silly props as your _Catholicon_ (as you vainly call it) to support 'em.

"What an excellent thing too is your book of Patronage? 'Twere no living for _Simon Magus_, or any of his disciples here, if those rules you there lay down were but duly attended to.

"But in those two books you showed yourself pragmatical only; but in this of _Martyrdom_ not a little impious, in your unworthy reflections upon almost all the honest people of England since the beginning of the reign of _Oliver_ the First, and some time before; not sparing many loyal worthies' memory who held up a good cause upon their sword points (as you express it) as long as they could; and when they could do so no longer, either dy'd for't, or deliver'd themselves up to the will of the conqueror, yet never (as you) abjur'd the cause. Our rulers you suppose are ill affected (otherwise your talk of Popery at your rate is like that of one that were desirous and in conspiracy to bring in Popery): and, undoubtedly, it had been in already, had not the prayers of Mr. C., and the fifty righteous _Non-Cons_ in every city, prevented it."

Ἁλιέυς.

Dublin.

[_The Preparation for Martyrdom_ is not to be found either in the Bodleian or British Museum Catalogues. The author of the _Letter_ in reply to it, however, has afforded a clue to its authorship. Zachary Cawdrey, who appears to have been an admirer of the Vicar of Bray, was Rector of _Barthomley_ in Cheshire during the Commonwealth, and for fourteen years after the Restoration; this explains the hint in the _Letter_, of "setting their voices to the tune of _B--ley_." Cawdrey, moreover, was the author of _Discourse of Patronage; being a Modest Inquiry into the Original of it, and a further Prosecution of the History of it_: which is also noticed in the _Letter_. Zachary Cawdrey was born at Melton Mowbray about 1616; at the age of sixteen he entered St. John's College, Cambridge; and in 1649 became Rector of Barthomley, where he died Dec. 24, 1684. His brother David was one of the ejected, and the author of several works.]

_Reference wanted._--I find, in Blackwood, No. XXXVI. p. 432., a reference to an article in the _Edinburgh Review_, by Sir D. K. Sandford, on Greek banquets. As I cannot find the article itself, may I ask your assistance?

P. J. F. GANTILLON.

N. B.--In the article in Blackwood, p. 441., for "Heges_ander_" read Hege_sippus_; p. 444., for "Demg_le_" read Demgl_us_; p. 450., for "Nausi_dice_" read Nausi_nicus_; p. 455., for "H_es_perides" read H_y_perides.

[The article will be found in the _Edinburgh Review_, vol. lvi. p. 350. January, 1833.]

_Speaker of the House of Commons in 1697._--Who was the Speaker who succeeded Sir John Trevor, and was Speaker of the House of Commons in 1697?

W. FRASER.

Tor-Mohun.

[Peter Foley, Esq., succeeded Sir John Trevor, March 14, 1694. Sir Thomas Littleton, Bart., was chosen the next Speaker, December 3, 1698.]

* * * * *{153}

Replies.

INSCRIPTIONS IN BOOKS.

(Vol. vii. _passim._)

Under this head the following translation of part of the inscription at Behistun may be classed. It is, I apprehend, the earliest of this sort of inscription:

"Darius rex dicit: si hanc tabulam, hasque effigies spectas, et iis injuriam facias, et quamdiu tibi proles sit non eas conserves, Oromasdes hostis fiat tibi, et tibi proles non sit, et quod facias id tibi Oromasdes frustretur."

See Rawlinson's "Translation of the Great Persian Inscription at Behistun," par. 17. _Asiatic Society's Transactions_.

The following is an extract from Maitland's _Dark Ages_, p. 270., notes 3 and 4:

"Terrible imprecations were occasionally annexed by the donors or possessors of books; as in a sacramentary which Mastene found at St. Benoit sur Loire, and which he supposed to belong to the ninth century. 'Ut si quis eum de Monasterio aliquo ingenio non redditurus abstraxerit cum Juda proditore, Anna et Caipha, portionem æternæ damnationis accipiat. Amen, Amen, Fiat, Fiat.'"

There is a curious instance of this in a manuscript of some of the works of Augustine and Ambrose in the Bodleian Library:

"Liber S. Mariæ de Ponte Roberti, qui eum abstulerit, aut vendiderit, vel quolibet modo ab hâc domo absciderit, sit anathema maranatha. Amen."

In another hand (alienâ manu),--

"Ego Johannes Exōn Epūs, nescio ubi est domus predicta, nec hunc librum abstuli, sed modo legitimo adquisivi."

Also page 283.:

"Liber B. Mariæ de Camberone: si quis eum abstulerit, anathema esto."

In the preface to a late publication (1853), _Fragments of the Iliad of Homer from a Syrian Palimpsest_, edited by William Cureton, the editor tells us:

"The Palimpsest Manuscript, in which I discovered these fragments of a very ancient copy of the Iliad of Homer, formed a part of the library of the Syrian convent of St. Mary Deipara, in the Valley of the Ascetics, or the Deserts of Nigritia. On the first page of the last leaf the following notice occurs: 'This volume of my Lord Severus belongs to the reverend and holy my Lord Daniel, Bishop of the province of Orrhoa (Edessa), who acquired it from the armour of God, when he was down in the province of the city of Amida, for his own benefit, and that of every one that readeth it. But under the curse of God is he whosoever steals it, or hides or removes it ... or tears, or erases, or cuts off this memorial from it, for ever. And through our Lord Jesus Christ may he who readeth it pray for the same Daniel, that he may find mercy in the day of judgment! Yea, and Amen, and Amen. And upon the sinner who wrote it, may there be mercy in the day of judgment! Amen. But at the end of his life he bequeathed it to this sacred convent of my Lord Silas, which is in Tarug (a city of Mesopotamia), for the sake of the remembrance of himself and of the dead belonging to him. May the Lord have mercy upon him in the day of judgment! Amen. Whosoever removeth this volume from this same convent, may the anger of the Lord overtake him in both worlds to all eternity! Amen.'"

ANON.

In some of Dugdale's MS. volumes in this College is the following, written by himself:

"Maledictus sit qui abstulerit."

THOMAS W. KING, YORK HERALD.

College of Arms.

* * * * *

THE DRUMMER'S LETTER.

(Vol. vii., p. 431.)

Mr. Forbes rightly describes the Drummer's Letter in the _Sentimental Journey_ as "not only correctly but elegantly written." There is, moreover, in two or three places, a play upon words, which indicates an intimate acquaintance with the idiomatic turns of the language. But all these circumstances are, to my mind, only so many grounds for the belief that the French of the letter is not Sterne's.

If we are to judge of Sterne's French from the samples to be met with in _Tristram Shandy_ and the _Sentimental Journal_, there is ample evidence that his knowledge of that language was somewhat superficial. I shall give a few examples.

Your readers are familiar with the incident in _Tristram Shandy_, where the Abbess and Margarita, having occasion to make use of two very coarse and indecent expressions, resort to the ludicrous expedient of splitting them in two, each pronouncing a separate syllable. Those words are scandalously common in the mouths of Frenchmen; and yet Sterne seems so little aware of the correct spelling of them, that he makes the poor nuns give utterance to two words, one of which, "bouger," means "to move," and the other, "fouter," is unknown to the French language.

Farther on, in chapter xxxiv., the commissary employs the expression "C'est tout égal;" but this is merely the translation of our English phrase "'Tis all one." The French say "C'est égal," but never "C'est tout égal."

In the _Sentimental Journey_, under the head of "The Bidet," La Fleur is made to say "C'est _un_ cheval le plus opiniâtre du monde." Now, the man who could write the Drummer's Letter would not have applied the epithet "opiniâtre" {154} to a horse; and, at any rate, he would have said "C'est _le_ cheval le plus opiniâtre du monde."

In the chapter headed "The Passport," and also in another place, we have the phrase "Ces Messieurs Anglais sont des gens très extraordinaires." This should be "Messieurs les Anglais," &c.

Again, under the head of "Characters," Count de B. says, "But if you do support it, _M. Anglais_, you must do it with all your powers." This "M. Anglais" is our "Mr. Englishman." The correct expression is "M. l'Anglais"--Mr. _the_ Englishman.

I might add other instances; but these, I trust, are sufficient to warrant the opinion that the Drummer's Letter, in its present shape, was not written by Sterne.

HENRY H. BREEN.

St. Lucia.

* * * * *

OLD FOGIES.

(Vol. vii., p. 632.)

At the place above referred to, MR. KEIGHTLEY puts to me several Queries; but being resident in the country, I had not an opportunity of seeing them till the 15th instant, and it took some days to get the information that would enable me to answer them.

I have now obtained the most ample evidence of the existence, in the latter part of the last, and the beginning of the present, centuries, of the existence of a peculiar body of men called the _Fogies_, in Edinburgh Castle. My informants agree in describing them as old men, dressed in red coats with apple-green facings, and cocked hats. One says that they fired the Castle guns; another says that he understood them to be the keepers, or, as we might say, the warders of the Castle, and that they were sometimes brought into the town to assist in quelling riots; and this gentleman's recollection of them goes back to 1784 at least. But the oldest date I have been able to get is from a much respected friend, the retired Town Clerk of Edinburgh, who writes to me thus: "I have a most vivid recollection of the _Castle Foggies_. They were an invalid company, and my recollection of them goes as far back at least as 1780, when I was at Stalker's English school in the Lawnmarket."

To the testimony of these still living witnesses, I have to add that of Dr. Jamieson, who gives the word in his _Dictionary_ as one of common and well-known use in Scotland in his time, 1759-1808; though he may have mistaken in supposing it to be exclusively Scottish. It was for his testimony to this _fact_ that I referred to Dr. Jamieson's _Dictionary_, and not for his etymology, for I am not so much of a "true Scot" as to consider him infallible in that department. I have not leisure at present to search any farther for the word in books, but in the meantime I presume to think the evidence I have procured of its use in Scotland, will carry us nearly as far back as MR. KEIGHTLEY'S for its use in Ireland.