Chapter 5

"In the possession of the family is a curious series of journals commenced by Richard Wilbraham of Nantwich, who died in 1612, and continued regularly to the time of his great-great-grandson, who died in 1732. As a genealogical document, such a memorial is invaluable; and it contains many curious incidental notices of passing events, and of minute particulars relating to the town of Nantwich, of whose rights the Wilbrahams of Townsend were the never-failing and active guardians."

J. YEOWELL.

_Pierrepont_ (Vol. vii., p. 606.).--A descendant thanks C. J. The information wanted is parentage and descent of John Pierrepont of Wadworth, who in a family mem. by his great-great-granddaughter is called "Uncle to Evelyn, Earl of P." Any information respecting John Pierrepont or his descendants through Margaret Stevens will much oblige.

A. F. B.

Diss.

_Passage in Bacon_ (Vol. viii., p. 141.).--In the Notes on Bacon's Essay II. "On Death," there appears the following:

"In the passage of Juvenal, the words are 'Qui spatium vitae,' and not 'Qui finem vitae,' as quoted by Lord Bacon. Length of days is meant."

His lordship's memory and _ear_ too certainly misled him with respect to the _wording_, but he has correctly given us the _sense_. Juvenal has been arguing (l. iv. Sat. x.) on the vanity of earthly blessings, so called, in quite a philosophic way; it is hardly possible to suppose him closing his sermon with--

"Fortem posce animum, mortis terrore carentem, Qui spatium vitae extremum inter munera ponat Naturae, qui ferre queat quoscumque labores, Nesciat irasci, cupiat nihil, et potiores Herculis aerumnas credat, saevosque labores, Et Venere, et coenis, et plume Sardanapali."

if by _spatium_ he meant "length;" but how apt and beautiful in Lord Bacon's sense! A note on the passage in the Var. Ed. of 1684 has "Qui sciat _mortem_ munus aliquod naturae esse."

EMMANUEL CANTAB.

_Monumental Inscription in Peterborough Cathedral_ (Vol. viii., p. 215.).--In consequence of the very curious Notes communicated by H. THOS. WAKE, I would beg to draw that gentleman's attention to the very important MS. collections of Bp. White Kennet on the subject of this cathedral in the Lansd. MSS., British Museum, to which I shall be happy to give him the references in a private letter, if he will favour me with his address.

E. G. BALLARD.

_Lord North_ (Vol. vii., p. 207).--I feel much obliged to your correspondent C. for his courtesy in replying to my inquiry concerning this nobleman. His remembrance of the personal appearance of George III., and his remarks on the subject, are in my opinion conclusive; but the appearance of the statement in the _Life of Goldsmith_ was such as to provoke inquiry. May I ask our correspondent C. (who appears to be acquainted with the North genealogy) whether a sister of the premier North, by the some mother, was not alive some years after the year 1734? Collins records the birth of an infant daughter, but the fact is overlooked in modern peerages.

OBSERVER.

_Land of Green Ginger_ (Vol. viii., pp. 34. 160. 227.).--Mr. Frost, in his _History_, p. 71., &c., has shown many instances of alteration in the names of streets in Hull from the names of persons, as from Aldegate to Scale Lane, from Schayl, a Dutchman; and MR. RICHARDSON has made it most probable that the designation "Land of Green Ginger" took place betwixt 1640 and 1735. It has occurred to me, that a family of the Dutch name of Lindegreen (green lime-trees) resided at Hull within the last fifty years or more. Now the "junior" of this name would be called in Dutch "Lindegroen jonger," which may have originated the corruption "Land o' green ginger." This conjecture would amount to solution of the question, if the Lindegreens had about 150 years ago any property or occupation in this lane. The Dutch had necessarily much intercourse with Hull: one of their imports was the lamprey, chiefly as bait for turbot, cod, &c. obtained in the Ouse near the mouth of the Derwent; which fish was conveyed in boats in Ouse Water, and was kept alive and lively by means of poles made to revolve in these floating fish-ponds, as I was informed by an alderman prior to the reform of that ancient borough. But lamprey has now either migrated, or been exterminated by clearing the Ouse of stones[5], or by the excessive cupidity of the fisherman or gastronomer.

T. J. BUCKTON.

Birmingham.

[Footnote 5: The Petromyzon by attaching itself to a stone forms a drill, by which it furrows the shoal for the deposit of its spawn.]

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_Sheer, and Shear Hulk_ (Vol. vii., p. 126.)--A _sheer_ hulk is a mere hulk, simply the hull of a vessel unfurnished with masts and rigging. A _shear_ hulk, on the contrary, is the hull of a vessel fitted with _shears_ (so termed from their resemblance to the blades of a pair of shears when opened), for the purpose of masting and dismasting other vessels.

The use of the word _buckle_, in the signification of bend, is exceedingly common both among seamen and builders. For its use among the former I can vouch; and among the latter, see the evidence at the coroner's inquest on the late melancholy and mysterious accident at the Crystal Palace.

W. PINKERTON.

Ham.

_Serpent with a Human Head_ (Vol. iv., p. 191.).--The following passage from Gervasius Tilberiensis (_Otia Imperialia_, lib. i sect. 15.) shows that the idea of the serpent which tempted Eve, having a woman's head, was current in the time of Bede. I having not had an opportunity of finding whereabouts in Bede's writings the passage quoted by Gervasius occurs:

"Nec erit omittendum, quod ait Beda, loquens de serpente qui Evam seduxit: 'Elegit enim diabolus quoddam genus serpentis foemineum vultum habentis, quia similes similibus applaudunt, et movit ad loquendum linguam ejus."

C. W. G.

_"When the maggot bites"_ (Vol. viii., p 244.).--An ANON correspondent asks for a note to explain the origin of the saying that thing done on the spur of the moment is done "when the maggot bites." Perhaps the best explanation is that afforded in the following passage from Swift's _Discourse on the Mechanical Operation of the Spirit_:

"It is the opinion of choice _virtuosi_ that the brain is only a crowd of little animals with teeth and claws extremely sharp, and which cling together in the contexture we behold, like the picture of Hobbes's Leviathan; or like bees in perpendicular swarm on a tree; or like a carrion corrupted into vermin, still preserving the shape and figure of the mother animal: that all invention is formed by the morsure of two or more of these animals upon certain capillary nerves which proceed from thence, whereof three branches spring into the tongue and two into the right hand. They hold also that these animals are of a constitution extremely cold: that their food is the air we attract, their excrement phlegm. And that what we vulgarly call rheums, and colds, and distillations, is nothing else but an epidemical looseness to which that little commonwealth is very subject from the climate it lies under. Farther, that nothing less than a violent heat can disentangle these creatures from their hamated station in life; or give them vigour and humour, to imprint the marks of their little teeth. That if the morsure be hexagonal, it produces poetry; the circular gives eloquence. If the bite hath been conical, the person whose nerve is so affected shall be disposed to write upon politics; and so of the rest."

J. EMERSON TENNENT.

_Definition of a Proverb_ (Vol. viii., p. 242.).--The proverb, "Wit of one man, the wisdom of many," has been attributed to Lord John Russell: I think in a recent number of the _Quarterly Review_. The foundation was laid most probably by Bacon:

"The genius, wit, and spirit of a nation are discovered by their proverbs."

It may not be perhaps generally known to your readers, that in a small volume, called _Origines de la Lengua Espanola, &c., por Don Gregorio Mayans y Siscar, Bibliothecario del Rei nuestro Senor_, en Madrid, Ano 1737, will be found a numerous collection of Spanish proverbs. A MS. note in my copy has a note, stating that the MS. made for Mayans, from the original, in the national library at Madrid, is now in the British Museum, Additional MSS., No. 9939.

The work is divided into dialogues; and in the copy in question are some remarks by a Spanish gentleman, I fear too long for your pages: but I send you an English version by a friend, of one of the couplets in the dialogues, "Diez marcos tengo de oro:"

"Ten marks of gold for the telling, And of silver I have nine score, Good houses are mine to dwell in, And I have a rent-roll more: My line and lineage please me: Ten squires to come at my call, And no lord who flatters or fees me, Which pleases me most of them all."

JOHN MARTIN.

Woburn Abbey.

_Gilbert White of Selborne_ (Vol. viii., p. 244.).--Oriel College, of which Gilbert White was for more than fifty years a Fellow, some years since offered to have a portrait of him painted for their hall. An inquiry was then made of all the members of his family; but no portrait of any description could be found. I have heard my father say that Gilbert White was much pressed by his brother Thomas (my grandfather) to have his portrait painted, and that he talked of it; but it was never done.

A. HOLT WHITE.

_"A Tub to the Whale"_ (Vol. viii., p. 220.).--In the Appendix B. to Sir James Macintosh's _Life of Sir Thomas More_ is the following passage:

"The learned Mr. Douce has informed a friend of mine, that in Sebastian Munster's _Cosmography_ there is a cut of a ship, to which a whale was coming too close for her safety; and of the sailors throwing a tub {305} to the whale, evidently to play with. The practice of throwing a tub or barrel to a large fish, to divert the animal from gambols dangerous to a vessel, is also mentioned in an old prose translation of the _Ship of Fools_. These passages satisfactorily explain the common phrase of throwing a tub to a whale."

Sir James Macintosh conjectures that the phrase "the tale of a tub" (which was familiarly known in Sir Thomas More's time) had reference to the tub thrown to the whale.

C. H. COOPER.

Cambridge.

_The Number Nine_ (Vol. viii., p. 149.).--The property of numbers enunciated and illustrated by MR. LAMMENS resolves itself into two.

1. If from any number above nine be subtracted the number expressed by writing the same digits backwards, the remainder is divisible by nine.

2. If the number nine measure a given number, it measures the sum of its digits.

As the latter is proved in most elementary books on Algebra, I confine my proof to the former.

Let the number in question be--

_a__0 + _a__1 . 10 + _a__2 . 10^2 + ... + _a__{_n_-1} . 10^{_n_-1} + _a__{_n_} . 10^{_n_}

Then

_a__{_n_} + _a__{_n_-1} . 10 + _a__{_n_-2} . 10^2 + ... + _a__1 . 10^{_n_-1} + _a__0 . 10^{_n_}

is "the same number written backwards." The difference is--

(_a__{_n_} - _a__0)(10^{_n_} - 1) + (_a__{_n_-1} - _a__1)(10^{_n_-2} - 1) . 10 + ... + (_a__{_n_/2+1} - _a__{_n_/2-1})(10^2-1) . 10^{_n_/2-1} if _n_ be even, but + (_a__{(_n_+1)/2} - _a__{(_n_-1)/2})(10-1) . 10^{(n-1)/2} if _n_ be odd.

And every term of this difference, as involving a factor of the form (1 - 10^{_n_}), is divisible by 9; and therefore the difference is divisible by 9.

C. MANSFIELD INGLEBY.

Birmingham.

_The Willingham Boy._--ABREDONENSIS will find full information on all the points he appears from your Notices to Correspondents (Vol. viii., p. 66.) to have inquired after in--

"Prodigium Willinghamense, or Authentic Memoirs of the Life of a Boy born at Willingham, near Cambridge, with some Reflections on his Understanding, Strength, Temper, Memory, Genius, and Knowledge, by Thos. Dawkes, Surgeon."

W. P.

_Unlucky Days_ (Vol. vii., p. 232.).--The Latin verses contained in the old Spanish breviary, adverted to by W. PINKERTON, bear a close resemblance to those which are to be found in the Red Book of the Irish Exchequer. The latter form part of a calendar which is supposed to have been written either during the reign of John or Henry III. A similar calendar, with like verses, has been printed by the Archaeological Society, Dublin. As the lines in the Red Book vary in some respects from those which have appeared in "N. & Q.," I have taken the liberty of inclosing a transcript of them.

"_January._ Prima dies mensis, et septima truncat ut ensis. _February._ Quarta subit mortem, prosternit tertia fortem. _March._ Primus mandantem, dirumpit quarta bibentem. _April._ Denus et undenus, est mortis vulnere plenus. _May._ Tertius occidit, et septimus hora relidit. _June._ Denus pallescit, quindenus federa nescit. _July._ Terdecimus mactat, Julii denus labefactat. _August._ Prima necat fortem, perditque secunda choortem. _September._ Tertia Septembris, et denus fert mala membris. _October._ Tertia cum dena, clamat sit integra vena. _November._ Scorpius est quintus, et tertius est nece cinctus. _December._ Septimus exanguis, virosus denus ut anguis."

JAMES F. FERGUSON.

Dublin.

_Rhymes on Places_ (Vol. vii. _passim_.).--Midlothian:

"Musselboro' was a boro', Whan Edinboro' was nane; An Musselboro' 'll be a boro', Whan Edinboro's gane."

W. T. M.

Hong Kong.

Cambridgeshire folks say,--

"Hungry Hardwick, Greedy Toft, Hang-up Kingston, Caldecott[6] naught."

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

[Footnote 6: Pronounced _Cawcote_.]

_Quotation Wanted_ (Vol. vi., p. 421.).--See Byron's _Dream_, stanza ii. v. 30.:

"She was his life, The ocean to the river of his thoughts."

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

_Lamech_ (Vol. vii., p. 432.).--For "Lamech," see Mr. Browne's excellent _Ordo Saeclorum_, ch. vii. Sec. 302., 1844--a book deserving to be much more widely known.

S. Z. Z. S.

_Muggers_ (Vol. viii., p. 34.).--The names _muggers_ and _potters_, betokening dealers in mugs and pots, are, in the north of England, applied indiscriminately to hawkers of earthenware, whether of gipsy blood or not. Indeed, the majority are evidently not gipsies.

T. D. RIDLEY.

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Miscellaneous.

NOTES ON BOOKS, ETC.

We have received from Messrs. Williams and Norgate copies of the first number of two new German periodicals, with which, when they know their nature, some of our readers may desire better acquaintance. Our antiquarian friends, for instance, may be glad to know, that the opening number of one of these, the _Anzeige fuer Kunde des Deutschen Vorzeit, Organ des Germanischen Museums_ (which is to appear monthly), contains, among other articles of antiquarian interest, notes on the earliest known MS. of the Nuremburg Chronicle, and on an early MS. of the Nibelungen; notice of an original Letter of Pirkheimer, relative to the wars of Maximilian against the Swiss; and also of a remarkable, and hitherto unknown, old copper-plate engraving on six sheets by an unknown artist, apparently of the school of Martin Schon, illustrative of that campaign; and an account of an early miscellaneous MS., in which is a List of Masons' Marks. The second is one which will interest all lovers of folk lore. It is edited by J. W. Wolf, and entitled _Zeitschrift fuer Deutsche Mythologie und Sittenkunde_, and numbers among its contributors, W. Grimm, Nordnagel, Kuhn, and many other good men and true, who have devoted their talents to the study of popular antiquities. We hope shortly to find room for a specimen or two of the "Old World" stories and customs which they have here recorded.

BOOKS RECEIVED.--_A Guide containing a Short Historical Sketch of Lynton and Places adjacent in North Devon, including Ilfracombe_, by T. H. Cooper: a well-timed guide to the most picturesque portion of one of the most beautiful parts of North Devon, pleasantly interlarded with scraps of folk lore and historical anecdote.--In Bohn's _Standard Library_, we have a farther issue of Miss Bremer's works, comprising _A Diary_; _The H---- Family_; _Axel and Anna_, and other Tales: and the second volume of Mr. Hickie's translation of _The Comedies of Aristophanes_ forms the issue for the present month of the same publisher's _Classical Library_.--Mr. Darling proceeds with great regularity in the publication of his _Cyclopoedia Bibliographica_, of which we have received No. XII., which extends from Bernard Lancy to Martin Madan.--_The Irish Quarterly Review_, No. XI. for September, contains, among other articles of general interest, such as those on _French Social Life and Fashion in Poetry, and the Poets of Fashion_, a farther portion of the amusing anecdotical paper, entitled _The Streets of Dublin_.

* * * * *

BOOKS AND ODD VOLUMES WANTED TO PURCHASE.

THE BUILDER, No. 520.

OSWALLI CROLLII OPERA. 12mo. Geneva, 1635.

GAFFARELL'S UNHEARD-OF CURIOSITIES. Translate by Chelmead. London, 12mo. 1650.

BEAUMONT'S PSYCHE. 2nd Edit. folio. Camb. 1702.

THE MONTHLY ARMY LIST from 1797 to 1800 inclusive. Published by Hookham and Carpenter, Bond Street. Square 12mo.

JER. COLLIER'S ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND. Folio Edition. Vol II.

LONDON LABOUR AND THE LONDON POOR.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE LONDON GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY.

PRESCOTT'S HISTORY OF THE CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 3 Vols. London. Vol. III.

MRS. ELLIS'S SOCIAL DISTINCTIONS. Tallis's Edition. Vols. II. and III. 8vo.

PAMPHLETS.

JUNIUS DISCOVERED. By P. T. Published about 1789.

REASONS FOR REJECTING THE EVIDENCE OF MR. ALMON, &c. 1807.

ANOTHER GUESS AT JUNIUS. Hookham. 1809.

THE AUTHOR OF JUNIUS DISCOVERED. Longmans. 1821.

THE CLAIMS OF SIR P. FRANCIS REFUTED. Longmans. 1822.

WHO WAS JUNIUS? Glynn. 1837.

SOME NEW FACTS, &c., by Sir F. Dwarris. 1850.

*** _Correspondents sending Lists of Books Wanted are requested to send their names._

*** Letters, stating particulars and lowest price, _carriage free_, to be sent to MR. BELL, Publisher of "NOTES AND QUERIES," 186. Fleet Street.

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Notices to Correspondents.

G. T. (Reading). _We are happy to be able to assure our Correspondent that that venerable antiquary_ JOHN BRITTON _is still among us, and, when we last saw him, as hale as his best friends could wish._

H. H. R. _will find in our earlier volumes several Notes on the subject of his Query._

W. M. _The line_--

"Incidis in Scyllam cupiens vitare Charybdim,"

_is from_ lib. v. 301. _of the_ Alexandreis _of Philip Gualtier: and not_ Tempora, _but_

"Omnia mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis,"

_is from a poem by Matthew Borbonius in the_ Delitiae Poetarum Germanorum, vol. i. p. 683.

H. C. C. _Will this Correspondent favour us with his address in exchange for that of_ NEWBURY, _which we have, and who wishes to correspond with him?_

J. O. _May we insert the interesting Reply sent by this Correspondent, or is it his wish that we should forward it?_

W. S. F. _will find an interesting article on the loss of Gray's original MS. from La Grande Chartreuse, in our_ First Volume, p. 416.

J. M. G. _Is not the translation of_ The Ode, _spoken of in the article alluded to as being by James Hay Beattie, the one respecting which our Querist inquires?_

F. M. (A Maltese). 1. _We should recommend our Correspondent to make his gun cotton with the nitrate of potash and sulphuric acid, as originally recommended in_ "N. & Q.," _taking care that they are both thoroughly incorporated before the addition of the cotton. Much vexation often occurs in consequence of the various strengths of nitric acid. But the gun cotton can now be procured at some of the photographic houses quite as reasonably as it can be prepared._ 2. _Acetic acid is added to the pyrogallic acid to prevent its too rapid decomposition, and to facilitate the more easy flowing of the fluid over the plate. But the more acetic acid is used, the more slow will be the development._ 3. _Is not the cracking of the albumen the result of the climate of Malta?_

F. (Manchester). _We do not think that you can do better than adopt strictly the mode of obtaining positives recommended by_ MR. POLLOCK, _and which we printed some time since; or that pursued by_ DR. DIAMOND, _which we have in type, but have been compelled to postpone until next week._

A. B. C. _Having ourselves practised the_ Paper Process, _according to the directions given in our first Number for the present year (with the correction of using the gallic acid, which, as stated in a subsequent Number, was by accident omitted), we would advise our Correspondent to adhere _strictly_ to those rules rather than any other with which we have since become acquainted. We are of opinion that sufficient care is very rarely used in the preparation of the iodized paper, and upon which all future success must depend._

_A few complete sets of_ "NOTES AND QUERIES," Vols. i. _to_ vii., _price Three Guineas and a Half, may now be had; for which early application is desirable._

"NOTES AND QUERIES" _is published at noon on Friday, so that the Country Booksellers may receive Copies in that night's parcels, and deliver them to their Subscribers on the Saturday._

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