Chapter 5

Referring to a collection of notes on the ancient commerce and manufactures of Ireland, which I have lately made, I find--cited as an instance of the general use of Irish cloth in England at an early period--that Henry IV., in 1410, gave a royal grant of tolls, for the purpose of paving the town of Cambridge; in which, among other articles, Irish cloth is taxed at the rate of twopence per hundred. The grant, "De villa Cantabrigiae paveanda," will be found in Rymer's _Foedera_.

W. PINKERTON.

Ham.

_Autobiographical Sketch_ (Vol. vii., p. 477.).--The fragments found by CHEVERELLS are parts of _The Library of Useless Knowledge_, by Athanasius Gasker, Esq., F.R.S., &c.: London, W. Pickering, 1837.

H. J.

_Archbishop Chichely_ (Vol. viii., p. 198).--The Statute Book of All Souls College; Robert Hoveden's _Life of Chichely_; and the respective Lives by Arthur Duck and O. L. Spencer, have all been examined for the date of Henry Chichely's birth, but without success.

The most probable conjecture is, that he was born in 1362; since in 1442 (see his "Letter to Pope Eugenius," printed in the Appendix to Spencer's _Life_) he describes himself as having either completed or entered upon his eightieth year.

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

"_Discovery of the Inquisition_" (Vol. viii., p. 137.).--It is a mistake to suppose that all John Day's publications are rare. Montanus's _Discovery and playne Declaration of sundry subtill Practices of the Holy Inquisition of Spayne, newly translated_, 4to., 1568, is not uncommon. Herbert and Heber possessed copies; and a copy sold at Saunders's in 1818 for five shillings. My own copy (a remarkably fine one) cost sixteen shillings at Evans's in 1840. The edition of 1569, containing some additions, is of greater rarity.

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

_Divining Rod_ (Vol. viii., p. 293.).--In the first edition of his _Mathematical Recreations_, Hutton laughed at the divining rod. In the interval between that and the second edition, a lady made him change his note, by using one before him at Woolwich. Hutton had the courage to publish the account of the experiment in the second edition (vol. iv. pp. 216-231.), after the account he had previously given. By a letter from Hutton to Bruce, printed in the memoir of the former which the latter wrote, it appears that the lady was Lady Milbanke.

M.

"_Pinece with a stink_" (Vol. viii, p. 270.).--Archbishop Bramhall's editor should have spelled the first word _pinnace_, and then your correspondent MR. BLAKISTON could easily have understood the {351} allusion. In speaking of the offensive composition, well known to sailors, the word _revenge_, and not _defend_, was used by Bramhall.

R. G.

_Longevity_ (Vol. viii., p. 113.).--I do not think any of your correspondents has noticed the case of John Whethamstede, Abbot of St. Albans, who wrote a Chronicle of the period between 1441 and 1461: "He was ordained a priest in 1382, and died in 1464, when he had been eighty-two years in priest's orders, and was above one hundred years old." Surely this is a case sufficiently authenticated for your more sceptical readers. (Henry's _History of Great Britain_, 2nd ed., Lond. 1788, vol. x. p. 132.)

TEWARS.

_Chronograms_ (Vol. viii., pp. 42. 280.).--The following additional specimen of this once popular form of numerical puzzle is not, I think, unworthy a corner in "N. & Q."

On the upper border of a sun-dial, affixed to the west end of Nantwich Church, Cheshire, there appeared, previous to its removal about 1800, the undermentioned inscription:

"Honor DoMIno pro paCe popVLo sVo parta."

Now, seeing that Nantwich was, during the civil dissensions which culminated in the murder of Charles I., a rampant hot-bed of anarchy and rebellion, we should hardly be prepared for such a complete repudiation of those principles as is conveyed in the line before us, did we not know that the same anxiety to get rid of the "Bare-bones" incubus universally prevailed. The numerals, it will be seen, make up the number 1661, which was the year of the coronation of King Charles II.; and, no doubt, also the year in which the dial in question was erected.

T. HUGHES.

Chester.

_Heraldic Notes_ (Vol. viii., p. 265.).--The bearing of the arms of Clare Hall by Dr. Blythe is not strictly correct, because, with the exception of the three principal Kings of Arms, the Earl Marshal, the Master of Ordnance, and a few others especially, arms of office do not exist in England. The general mode of bearing them is by impalement, giving the preference (dexter) to the arms of dignity. In the example under notice, the arms of dignity or office are borne upon a _pile_, which has somewhat the appearance of an inverted chevron. It is not at all a common mode of bearing additions; but I remember one case, viz. the grant by King Henry VIII. to the Seymours, after his marriage to Lady Jane, of the lions of England on a pile.

BROCTUNA.

Bury, Lancashire.

_Christian Names_ (Vol. vii. _passim_).--May I be permitted to correct one or two errors in MR. BATES'S Note on this subject, Vol. vii. p. 627.?

The person described as a "certain M. L-P. Saint-Florentin" was no less a person than the Duke de la Vrilliere, who filled several important offices during the reign of Louis XV. The allusion in the epigram to his "trois noms" has no reference to his _names_, whether Christian or patronymic, in the sense in which the question has been discussed in "N. & Q.," but to the three _titles_ which he successively bore as a public man. He commenced his career as M. de Phelippeaux; was afterwards created Comte de Saint-Florentin, and sometime before his death was raised to the dignity of Duke de la Vrilliere.

My authority for this statement is the cotemporary work, _Les Memoires secrets de Bachaumont_, where, under date of December, 1770, the epigram is thus introduced, with a variation in the first line:

"Un autre plaisant a fait d'avance l'epitaphe de M. le duc de la Vrilliere. Elle roule sur ses trois noms differents de Phelippeaux, Saint-Florentin, et la Vrilliere:

'Ci-git, malgre son rang, un homme fort commun, Ayant porte trois noms, et n'en laissant aucun.'"

The sense being, that his titles had been his only distinction, and that even they had not been sufficient to rescue his character from obscurity and contempt.

However "applicable" this epigram may be to the bearers or borrowers of three names, it will be some comfort to them to know that its point was not directed against them, but against a class of men of much higher pretensions, of one of whom it has been said:

"_He left the name_, at which the world grew pale, To point a moral, or adorn a tale."

HENRY H. BREEN.

St. Lucia.

"_I put a spoke in his wheel_" (Vol. viii., p. 269.).--If G.K., being wronged, should cherish the unchristian spirit of revenge, let him playfully insert a spoke in the wheel of his friend's tandem, as it bowls along behind a pair of thorough-bred tits, with twelve months' hard condition upon old oats in them.

By simply putting a spoke in the wheel of the waggon employed in the removal of the Manchester College to London, one trustee opposed a decided "impediment to the movement" of that institution.

W. C.

P. S.--Allow me to point out a misprint at Vol. viii., p. 279, "Manners of the Irish:" for _chuse_ read _cheese_.

_Judges styled Reverend_ (Vol. viii., pp. 158. 276.).--With respect to the error into which I was led in making Anthony Fitzherbert _Chief_ Justice of the Common Pleas, I beg to express my thanks for our good friend's correction. My statement {352} was founded on the authority of the Visitation-Book of the county of Derby, A.D. 1634, in which Anthony Fitzherbert is "Chief Justice of ----;" and, as the question of his rank as a judge was not one at the moment of communicating my Note, I made no farther inquiry. I find, however, upon reference to Vincent's _Collections for Derbyshire_, that Anthony Fitzherbert is styled, in a very good pedigree of his family, "Unus Justiciariorum de Co[=i] Banco." Had I turned to Dugdale's _Origines Juridiciales_, the error might have been avoided.

THOS. W. KING (York Herald).

_Palace at Enfield_ (Vol. viii., p. 271.).--Queen Elizabeth, in the early part of her reign, frequently kept her court at Enfield. Her palace was the manor-house, near the church, of which little now remains. In Lysons' time (1793) it had been in a great measure rebuilt, and divided into tenements. He adds, "the part which contains the _old room_ is in the occupation of Mrs. Perry."

When I saw this room, about twenty years ago, it was in its original state, with oak panels and a richly ornamented ceiling. The chimney-piece was supported by columns of the Ionic and Corinthian order, and decorated with the cognizances of the rose and portcullis, and the arms of France and England quartered, with the garter and the royal supporters. Underneath was this motto, "Sola salus servire Deo, sunt caetera fraudes."

In the garden was a magnificent tree, a cedar of Libanus, which was pointed out to me as having been planted by Queen Elizabeth. But upon this point tradition was at fault. In the _Gentleman's Magazine_ for 1779, p. 138., may be seen an account of this remarkable cedar, which was planted by Dr. Robert Uvedale, the botanist, a tenant of the manor-house in 1670.

The church at Enfield does not date farther back than the middle of the fifteenth century. The devices of a rose and ring, which occur over the arches of the nave, seen also upon the tower of Hadley Church, with the date 1444, "supposing it to have been, as is very probable," says Lysons, "a punning cognizance adopted by one of the priors of Walden, to which monastery both churches belonged, will fix the building of the present structure at Enfield to the early part of the fifteenth century."

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

_Sir John Vanbrugh_ (Vol. viii., pp. 65. 160. 232.).--Are not your correspondents on the wrong scent as regards the birthplace of Sir John Vanbrugh? In the memoir prefixed to the collection of his _Plays_, 2 vols. 12mo., 1759, it is said:

"Sir John Vanbrugh, an eminent dramatic writer, son of Mr. Giles Vanbrugh of London, merchant, was born in the parish of St. Stephen's, Walbrook, in 1666. The family of Vanbrugh were for many years merchants of great credit and reputation at Antwerp, and came into England in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, on account of the persecution for religion."

Mr. Cunningham (_Handbook of London_, p. 282.) speaks of _William_ Vanderbergh, the supposed father of Sir John, as residing in Lawrence-Poultney Lane in 1677. He refers to Strype's map of Walbrook and Dowgate wards, and _A Collection of the Names of the Merchants living in and about the City of London_, 12mo. 1677.

The writer of the notice of Sir John Vanbrugh in Chambers' _Cyclopaedia of English Literature_, vol. i. p. 597., says:

"Vanbrugh was the son of a successful sugar-baker, who rose to be an esquire, and comptroller of the treasury chamber, besides marrying the daughter of Sir Dudley Carlton. It is doubtful whether the dramatist was born in the French Bastile, or the parish of St. Stephen's, Walbrook. The time of his birth was about the year 1666, when Louis XIV. declared war against England. It is certain he was in France at the age of nineteen, and remained there some years."

The family vault of the Vanbrughs is certainly in St. Stephen's Church, Walbrook, where Sir John was buried on the 30th of March, 1726.

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

_Greek Inscription on a Font_ (Vol. viii., p. 198.).---This Query has already been answered and illustrated in Vol. vii., pp. 178. 366. 417.; but the following passage may be of interest, as affording instances of the same inscription in France, and pointing out the probable source of its usage, viz. from the ancient Greek metropolitan church at Constantinople:

"St. Memin est une abbaye celebre sous l'ancien nom de Micy, sur la riviere de Loire, proche d'Orleans. Il y a dans l'eglise de ce monastere un benetier de forme ronde, avec cette inscription grecque gravee sur le bord du bassin, [GREEK: NIPSON ANOMEMA MEMONAN OPSIN]. La meme chose est a Paris, au benetier de St. Etienne d'Egres, et aussi autrefois a celui de Sainte Sophie a Constantinople."--_Voyages liturgiques de France, par le Sieur Moleon_, p. 219., 8vo. 1718.

It may be added (on Cole's authority, vol. XXXV. f. 19b.) that the same inscription is inscribed round a large silver basin used formerly at the master's table on festival days, in Trinity College Hall, Cambridge; and I have also seen it on a sliver-gilt rose-water basin, introduced at the banquets given by the master of Magdalene College in the same university.

[mu].

"_Fierce_" (Vol. viii., p. 280.).--In this part of the country the words _pert_, pronounced "peart," and _pure_, bear the same meaning, of well in health and spirits.

FRANCIS JOHN SCOTT.

Tewkesbury.

{353}

_Giving Quarter_ (Vol. viii., p. 246.).--It must be observed that the older form of the expression is "keeping quarter:"

"That every one should kill the man he caught, To _keep no quarter_."--_Drayton in Richardson._

Now very obvious application of the word _quarter_, instanced by Todd, is to signify the proper station or appointed place of any one.

"They do best who, if they cannot but admit love, yet make it _keep quarter_, and sever it wholly from their serious affairs."--Bacon's _Essays_.

To keep quarter, then, is to keep within measure, within the limits or bounds appointed by some paramount consideration; and hence, as in the following passage from Shakspeare (where it is clumsily interpreted amity or companionship), the word is used as synonymous with terms or conditions:

"Friends all but now, In quarter and in terms like bride and groom Divesting them for bed, and then but now Swords out and tilting one at other's breast."

In the same sense Clarendon speaks of "offering them _quarter_ for their lives if they would give up the castle," _i. e._ offering them conditions for their lives on their performing their part of the bargain.

Again, in a passage of Swift, cited by Todd: "Mr. Wharton, who detected some hundred of the bishop's mistakes, meets with very ill quarter from his Lordship," _i. e._ meets with very ill conditions of treatment from him. Finally, _to give quarter_ in the military sense is to give conditions absolutely, as opposed to the unmitigated exercise of the victor's power, and, as the most important of all conditions, to spare life.

H. W.

_Sheriffs of Glamorganshire_ (Vol. iii., p. 186.).--The list of the Glamorganshire sheriffs here inquired for was not printed by Mr. Traherne, but by the Rev. H. H. Knight, M.A., of Neath, and of Nottage Court, in Glamorganshire: it is a little pamphlet in a paper cover.

TEWARS.

"_When the maggot bites_" (Vol. viii., p. 244.).--A correspondent asks why a thing done on the spur of the moment is said to be done "when the maggot bites." It signifies rather doing a thing when the fancy takes one. When a person acts from no apparent motive in external circumstances, he is said to have a maggot in his head, to have a bee in his bonnet or, in French, "Avoir des rats dans la tete;" in Platt-Deutsch, to have a mouse-nest in his head, the eccentric behaviour being attributed to the influence of the internal irritation.

H. W.

_Connexion between the Celtic and Latin Languages_ (Vol. viii., p. 174.).--Your correspondent M. will find much valuable information on this subject in a work entitled _Thoughts on the Origin and Descent of the Gael_, by James Grant, Esq., Advocate: Edinburgh, Constable & Co., 1814.

FRANCIS JOHN SCOTT.

Tewkesbury.

_Bacon's Essays_ (Vol. viii., p. 143.).--Bacon's Essay VII.: "Optimum elige," &c. Pythagoras, in _Plutarch de Exilio_.--Essay XV.: "Dolendi modus," &c. Plin., lib. viii. ep. 17. fin.

C. P. E.

"_Exiguum est._" _&c._ (Vol. viii., p. 197.).--"Exiguum est ad legem bonum esse." Vide _Senec. de Ira_, ii. 27.

C. P. E.

_Muffs worn by Military Men on a March_ (Vol. viii., p. 281.).--In the year 1592 the Duke of Nevers was despatched by Henry IV. with all speed to a place called Bully, in order to cut off the retreat of the Duke of Guise, lately defeated near Bures. Sully speaks of him thus:

"The Duke of Nevers, the slowest of men, began by sending to make choice of the most favourable roads, and marched with a slow pace towards Bully, with his hands and his nose in his muff, and his whole person well packed up in his coach."--_Memoirs of Sully_, vol. i. p. 235., English edit., Edinburgh, 1773.

FRANCIS JOHN SCOTT.

Tewkesbury.

"_Earth says to Earth_" (Vol. vii., pp. 498. 576.).--A fac-simile of these lines, discovered in the chapel of the Guild of the Holy Cross at Stratford-on-Avon (with many other curious plates), may be seen in Fisher's _Illustrations of the Paintings_, &c., edited by J. G. Nichols, Esq., and published in 1802, and afterwards continued.

ERICA speaks of "Weaver's" Account. Unless this is a misprint for "Wheler's" (_Account of Stratford-on-Avon_), perhaps he will oblige me with the full title of Weaver's work.

ESTE.

_Poetical Tavern Signs_ (Vol. viii., p. 242.).--I would add the following sign-inscription to those noted by R. C. WARDE. It was on the walls of a tavern half-way up Richmond Hill, three miles south of Douglas, Isle of Man, kept by a man of the name of Abraham Lowe:

"I'm Abraham Lowe, and half-way up the hill, If I were higher up, what's funnier still, I should be belowe. Come in and take your fill Of porter, ale, wine, spirits, what you will. Step in, my friend, I pray no farther go; My prices, like myself, are always low."

J. G. C.

_Unkid_ (Vol. viii., p. 221.).--Is not the word _hunks_, so common in people's mouths,--_An old hunks_, an old miser or miserable wretch, to be referred to the same derivation as _unkid_, _hunkid_?

F. B--w.

{354}

_Camera Lucida_ (Vol. viii., p. 271.).--CARET will find Dr. Wollaston's description of his invention, the "Camera Lucida," in the 17th volume of _Nicholson's Journal_.

M. C. M.

* * * * *

Miscellaneous.

NOTES ON BOOKS, ETC.

Messrs. MacMillan of Cambridge have commenced the publication of a series of theological manuals by _A History of the Christian Church_ (_Middle Age_), by Charles Hardwick, M.A.; which, although written for this series, claims to be regarded as an integral and independent treatise on the Mediaeval Church. The work, which extends from the time of Gregory the Great to 1520, when Luther, having been extruded from those churches that adhered to the communion of the Pope, established a provisional form of government, and opened a fresh era in the history of Europe, is distinguished by the same diligent research and conscientious acknowledgment of authorities which procured for Mr. Hardwick's _History of the Articles of Religion_ such a favourable reception. The work is illustrated by four maps, which have been especially constructed for it by Mr. A. Keith Johnston.

The amiable and accomplished author of _Proposals for Christian Union_, and of _Welsh Sketches_, has just issued the third and concluding series of his little volumes on Welsh history, civil and ecclesiastical. We have no doubt that the eight chapters of which it consists, and in which he treats of Edward the Black Prince, Owen Glyndwr, Prince of Wales, Mediaeval Bardism, and the Welsh Church, will be read with great satisfaction, not only by all sons of the Principality, but by all who look with interest on that portion of our island in which the last traces of our ancient British race and language still linger.

BOOKS RECEIVED.--_The Journal of Sacred Literature_, No. IX. for October, continues to put forth strong claims to the support of those who have a taste for pure biblical literature. From the address of its new editor, it would seem not to be so well known as the object for which it is established plainly deserves.--_Cyclopaedia Bibliographica_, Part XIII. for October, continues its useful course. Every succeeding number only serves to prove how valuable the work will be when completed.--_The Shakspeare Repository_, edited by J. H. Fennell, No. III., is well worth the attention of our numerous Shakspearian readers.

* * * * *

BOOKS AND ODD VOLUMES WANTED TO PURCHASE.

FORD'S HANDBOOK OF SPAIN. Vol. I.

AUSTIN CHEIRONOMIA.

REV. E. IRVING'S ORATIONS ON DEATH, JUDGEMENT, HEAVEN, AND HELL.

THOMAS GARDENER'S HISTORY OF DUNWICH.

MARSH'S HISTORY OF HURSLEY AND BADDESLEY. About 1805. 8vo. Two Copies.

NICEPHORUS CATENA ON THE PENTATEUCH.

PROCOPIUS GAZAEUS.

WATT'S BIBLIOGRAPHIA BRITANNICA. Parts V. and VI.

MAXWELL'S DIGEST OF THE LAW OF INTESTATES.

CARLYLE'S CHARTISM. Crown 8vo. 2nd Edition.

THE BUILDER, No. 520.

OSWALLI CROLLII OPERA. 12mo. Geneva, 1635.

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

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

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 and addresses._

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

* * * * *

Notices to Correspondents.

BOOKS WANTED.--_We believe that gentlemen in want of particular books, either by way of loan or purchase, would find great facilities in obtaining them if their names and addresses were published, so that parties having the books might communicate directly with those who want them. Acting on this belief, we shall take advantage of the recent alteration in the law respecting advertisements, and in future, where our Correspondents desire to avail themselves of this new arrangement, shall insert their names and addresses_--_unless specially requested not to do so_.

J. N. RADCLIFFE. _We shall be glad to receive the Legendary Lore mentioned by our Correspondent._

REV. H. G. _Your letter has been forwarded to_ A. F. B. (Diss).

S. Z. Z. S. _We have a letter waiting for this Correspondent; how can we forward it?_

C. E. F. _Warm water and a few small shot will thoroughly cleanse the bottles in which collodion has been kept._

AN AMATEUR EXPERIMENTALIST. _Formerly the pint used in the compounding of medicines, chemicals, &c. consisted of sixteen fluid ounces, weighing one pound Avoirdupois weight. Now the imperial pint of twenty ounces is in general use. The Troy and apothecaries' ounce are the same, and contain forty grains more than the Avoirdupois ounce. In making collodion, take any quantity of ether, and dissolve the gun cotton in it; if too thick, it may always be reduced by the addition of more ether. Uniodized collodion may be bought quite as cheap as it may be made; and it generally has the advantage of having been made in a large body, and allowed time to settle, whereby the clear portion only is more easily decanted off for sale._

_Having active professional duties, it has been only at his leisure that_ DR. DIAMOND _has been enabled to give his attention to Photography, which has been the main cause of the delay complained of; but the delay will prove an advantage, for such important improvements are almost daily taking place in the art that works published a short time since are becoming comparatively useless._