Part 2
No man is so cruell, that is hable to styrre hym up. *Who is hable to stande before me? Or ++who hath geue me any thing aforehande, that I maye rewarde hym agayne? All thyn-
_No. 5. December, 1541._
No m[=a] is so cruel, that is able to styrre hym up. *Who is hable to stand before me? Or ++who hathe gyuen me anye thynge afore hande, that I maye rewarde hym agayne?
_No. 6. November, 1540._
No man is so cruell that is able to styr hym up. *Who is able to stande before me? Or ++who hath geuen me any thynge afore hande, that I maye re-
_No. 7. November, 1541._
No man is so cruell that is hable to styrre hym up. *Who is able to stande before me? Or ++who hath gyuen me any thyng afore hande, that I maye rewarde hym agayne? All
I believe the foregoing to be an exact copy of Mr. Wilson's catalogue, but, of course, I cannot be responsible for the accuracy of his transcripts. Perhaps none but those who were admitted to his library ever had an opportunity of comparing together all those editions; and nobody would have done it with more care and fidelity than himself.
S. R. M.
* * * * *
SOVEREIGNS DINING AND SUPPING IN PUBLIC.
In some observations which I made upon two or three pictures in Hampton Court Palace, in Vol. viii., p. 538., I specified two worthy of notice on the above subject, and which are the first instances of such ceremony I have met with. It has been supposed to have been a foreign custom but I do not find any traces of it upon record.[1] {121} One can easily imagine that the _fastueux_ Louis XIV. would have no objection to such display, and that his mistresses, as well as queen, would be of the party, when we read, that in the royal progresses two of the former were scandalously paraded in the same carriage with his queen. To this immoral exhibition, indeed, public opinion seemed to give no check, as we read, that "les peuples accouraient 'pour voir,' disaient-ils, 'les trois reines,'" wherever they appeared together. Of these three _queens_, the true one was Marie-Thérèse: the two others were La Marquise de Montespan and Mme. de la Vallière. But to return to my subject. I find by the _London Gazette_, No. 6091. of Sept. 4, 1722, that Geo. I., in his progress to the west of England, supped in public at the Bishop's (Dr. Richard Willis) palace at Salisbury on Wednesday, Aug. 29, 1722; and slept there that night.
The papers of the period of George II. say:
"There was such a resort to Hampton Court on Sunday, July 14, 1728, to see their Majesties dine, that the rail surrounding the table broke; and causing some to fall, made a terrible scramble for hats, &c., at which their Majesties laughed heartily."
And,--
"On Thursday, the 25th of the same month, it is stated, the concourse to see their Majesties dine in public at Hampton Court was exceedingly great. A gang of robbers (the swell-mob of that day?) had mixed themselves among the nobility and gentry; several gold watches being lost, besides the ladies' gown tails and laced lappets cut off in number."
And again:
"On Sunday, 15th September, 1728, their Majesties dined together in public at Windsor (as they will continue to do every Sunday and Thursday during their stay there), when all the country people, whether in or out of mourning, were permitted to see them."
Besides those three occasions of George II. and Queen Caroline dining in public, we have another recorded attended with some peculiar circumstances, as mentioned in the _London Gazette_, No. 7623. of Tuesday, Aug. 2, 1737:
"The 31st ult. being Sunday, their Majesties, the Prince and Princess of Wales, and the Princesses Amelia and Caroline, went to chapel at Hampton Court, and heard a sermon preached by the Rev. Dr. Blomer. Their Majesties, and the rest of the royal family, dined afterwards in public as usual before a great number of spectators. About seven o'clock that evening, the Princess of Wales was taken with some slight symptoms of approaching labour, and was removed to St. James's; where, a little after eleven, she was delivered of a princess."
This was the Princess Augusta, who was married to the Prince of Brunswick Wolfenbüttel.
[Phi].
Richmond.
[Footnote 1: [The custom was observed at a much earlier period; for we find that King Edward II. and his queen Isabella of France kept their court at Westminster during the Whitsuntide festival of 1317; and on one occasion, as they were _dining in public_ in the great banqueting-hall, a woman in a mask entered on horseback, and riding up to the royal table, delivered a letter to King Edward, who, imagining that it contained some pleasant conceit or elegant compliment; ordered it to be opened and read aloud for the amusement of his courtiers; but, to his great mortification, it was a cutting satire on his unkingly propensities, setting forth in no measured terms all the calamities which his misgovernment had brought upon England. The woman was immediately taken into custody, and confessed that she had been employed by a certain knight. The knight boldly acknowledged what he had done, and said, "That, supposing the King would read the letter in private, he took that method of apprising him of the complaints of his subjects."--Strickland's _Queens of England_, vol. i. p. 487.--ED.]]
* * * * *
PARALLEL IDEAS FROM POETS.
Longfellow and Tennyson:
"And like a lily on a river floating, She floats upon the river of his thoughts." _Spanish Student_, Act II. Sc. 3.
"Now folds the lily all her sweetness up, And slips into the bosom of the lake; So fold thyself, my dearest, thou, and slip Into my bosom and be lost in me." _Princess_, Part vii.
Wordsworth and Keble:
"A book, upon whose leaves some chosen plants By his own hand disposed with nicest care, In undecaying beauty were preserved;-- Mute register, to him, of time and place, And various fluctuations in the breast; To her, a monument of faithful love Conquered, and in tranquillity retained!" _Excursion_, Book vi.
"Like flower-leaves in a precious volume stor'd, To solace and relieve Some heart too weary of the restless world." _Christian Year_: Prayers to be used at Sea.
Moore and Keble:
"Now by those stars that glance O'er Heaven's still expanse Weave we our mirthful dance, Daughters of Zea!" _Evenings in Greece._
"Beneath the moonlight sky, The festal warblings flow'd, Where maidens to the Queen of Heaven Wove the gay dance." _Christian Year_: Eighth Sunday after Trinity.
NORRIS DECK.
Cambridge.
* * * * *
THE GREAT ALPHABETIC PSALM, AND THE SONGS OF DEGREES.
In attempting to discover a reason for the division of Psalm cxix. into twenty-two portions of _eight_ verses each, instead of _seven_ or _ten_, the more favourite numbers of the Hebrew, I have thought that, as the whole Psalm is chiefly laudatory of the Thorah, or Law of Moses, and was written alphabetically for the instruction mainly of the younger people, to be by them committed to memory, a {122} didactic reason might exist for making up the total number of 176 verses, peculiar to this Psalm. Adverting then to the necessity, for the purposes of Jewish worship, of ascertaining the periods of the new moons, to adjust the year thereby, I find that a mean lunation, as determined by the latest authorities, is very nearly 29.5306 days (29d. 12h. 44m.) and as the Jewish months were lunar, six of these would amount to 177d. 4h. 24m., being somewhat more than _one_ over the number of verses in this Psalm. As lunations, from observation, vary from 29d. 7h. 32m. to 29d. 18h. 50m., the above was a very close approximation to the half-year. The other half of the year would vary a whole lunation (_Veadar_) betwixt the ordinary and the intercalary year.[2] This was, at least, the best possible combination of twenty-two letters for such purpose. This Psalm might then have answered some of the purposes of an almanac. It is a very important one in fixing the Hebrew metres, the initial letter being the same for every eight verses in succession.
The words at the commencement of Psalms cxx. to cxxxiv., rendered "Song of Degrees," appear to me to signify rather "song of _ascents_," in reference to the Jewish practice of _ascending_ to the house-top to watch and pray, as well as to sleep. If it be assumed that these fifteen Psalms were appropriated for domestic use on the Jew retiring, by ascending the ladder or stairs, to the upper part or top of the house (Ps. cxxxii. 3.), the meaning of several passages will be better apprehended, I conceive, than by supposing that they were composed solely for temple use, or, as Eichhorn thinks, to be sung on a journey. Standing on the house-top, the praying Jew, like David and Solomon, would have in view heaven and earth (cxxi. 2., cxxiii 1.), the sun and moon (cxxi. 6.), the surrounding hills (cxxi. 1.) and mountains (cxxv. 2.), the gates and city of Jerusalem (cxxii. 2. 3. 7.), Mount Zion (cxxv. 1.), the watchmen on the walls (cxxvii. 1., cxxx. 6.), his wife and children at home (cxxviii. 3., cxxxi. 2.), the mover bringing in his sheaves, compared with the grass on the house-tops (cxxix. 6-8.), all subjects especially noted in these fifteen Psalms. The number _eight_ appears to be a favourite one in these, as well as in Psalm cxix., but there is no reason to believe that such number refers to the _octave_ in music. It may refer, however, to the number of stairs or steps of ascent. I am not aware that the above views have been previously taken, which is my reason for calling attention to this interesting and well-debated subject.
T. J. BUCKTON.
[Footnote 2: Their shortest ordinary year consisted of 353, and its half of 176½ days. The Mahometan ordinary half-year consists of 177 days. The calendar months of both Jews and Mahometans consist of 29 and 30 days.]
* * * * *
Minor Notes.
_Inscription on a Grave-stone in Whittlebury Churchyard, Northamptonshire._--
"In Memory of John Heath, he dy'd Dec^{br} y^e 17^{th}, 1767. Aged 27 years.
While Time doth run from Sin depart; Let none e'er shun Death's piercing dart; For read and look, and you will see A wondrous change was wrought on me. For while I lived in joy and mirth Grim Death came in and stop't my breath: For I was single in the morning light, By noon was marri'd, and was dead at night."
H. T. WAKE.
_Epitaph on Sir Henry St. George_, Garter Principal King of Englishmen [_sic_ in MS.], from a MS. in the Office of Arms, London (see Ballard MSS., vol. xxix.):
"Here lie a knight, a king, a saint, Who lived by tilt and tournament. His namesake, George, the dragon slew, But, give the herald king his due, He could disarm ten thousand men, And give them arms and shields again. But now the mighty sire is dead, Reposing here his hoary head; Let this be sacred to the mem'ry Of knight St. George and of King Henry"
BALLIOLENSIS.
_Newton and Milton._--Has it been observed that Sir Isaac Newton's dying words, so often quoted,--
"I am but as a child gathering pebbles on the seashore, while the great ocean of truth still lies undiscovered before me."
are merely an adaptation of a passage in _Paradise Regained_, book iv.:
"Deep versed in books and shallow in himself, Crude or intoxicate, collecting toys And trifles for choice matters, worth a sponge, As _children gathering pebbles_ on the shore."
ANON.
_Eternal Life._--In the _Mishna_ (Berachoth, ch. ix. s. 5) the doctrine of a future eternal state is clearly set forth in a passage which is rendered by De Sola and Raphall:
"But since the Epicureans perversely taught, there is but one state of existence, it was directed that men should close their benedictions with the form [Blessed be the Lord God of Israel] from eternity to eternity."
A like explicit declaration of such future state occurs again in the _Mishna_ (Sanhedrin, ch. xi. s. l.).
T. J. BUCKTON.
Birmingham.
_Inscriptions in Books._--The following are taken _literatim_ from the margins of an old black-letter {123} Bible. From the numerous errors we may suppose they were copied from dictation by a person unacquainted with Latin.
"Quanto doctiores tanto te gesas submiseias."
"Forasmuch as y^u art y^e better learned, By so much y^u must carry thy self more lowly." ------ "Si deus est animus nobis ut carmina dicunt, Sic tibi pricipus (bus?) sit pura mente colendus."
"Seing y^t God is, as y^e poets say, A liveing soul, lets worship him alway." ------ "Tempora (e?) felici multa (i?) numerantur amici, Cum fortuna perit nulus amicus erit."
"In time of prosperity friends will be plenty, In time of adversity not one among twenty."
On the title-page, "John Threlkeld's Book:"
"Hujus in dominum cupius (as?) cognescere libri, Supra prospiscias, nomen habebis ibi."
"Whose booke I am if you would know, I will to you in letters show."
On the other side:
"Thomas Threlkeld is my name, and for to write ... ing ashame, And if my pen had bene any better, I would have mended it every letter."
This last example closely resembles some others given in a late Number of "N. & Q."
J. R. G.
Dublin.
_Churchill's Grave._--It is not perhaps generally known, that the author of _The Rosciad_ was buried in the churchyard of St. Mary, Dover. On a small moss-covered head-stone is the following inscription:
"1764. Here lie the remains of the celebrated C. CHURCHILL."
"Life to the last enjoy'd, Here Churchill lies. CANDIDATE."
The notice is sufficiently brief; no date, except the year, nor age being recorded. The biographers inform us, that he died at Boulogne of a fever, while on a visit to Wilkes.
The cemetery where his remains are deposited is in the centre almost of Dover; and has recently been closed for the purposes of sepulture, with the exception of family vaults. Adjoining it is a small retired burial-place, containing at the most but two or three graves, and originally belonging to the Tavenors. Here is the tomb of Captain Samuel Tavenor, an officer of Cromwell, and, during his ascendancy, one of the governors of Deal Castle. Tavenor was a man distinguished for his courage, integrity, and piety.
J. BRENT.
* * * * *
Queries.
CORONATION STONE.
A few years ago the following tradition was related to me by a friend, and I should be glad if any of your correspondents can inform me whether it is current in any part of Great Britain or Ireland, and whether there are any grounds for it. As it is connected with one of our most interesting national relics, the coronation stone, it may not prove beneath notice; and I here give it in full, shielding myself with the Last Minstrel's excuse:
"I know not how the truth may be, But I tell the tale as 'twas told to me."
I must allow that its extreme vagueness, if not improbability, hardly warrants an inquiry; but having failed in obtaining any satisfactory proofs among my own friends, as a last resource I apply myself to the columns of your well-known and useful journal.
When Jacob awoke after his wonderful dream, as related in Genesis (chap. xxviii.), he said, "Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not;" and he was afraid, and said, "How dreadful is this place. This is none other but the house of God; and this is the gate of heaven." He "took the stone that he had put for his pillow and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it. And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father's house in peace, then shall the Lord be my God: and this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God's house; and of all that Thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto Thee."
That stone (so runs the legend) is supposed to have been taken away from Bethel by the House of Joseph, when they destroyed the city and its inhabitants (Judges i.); and a tradition, that whosoever possessed that stone would be especially blessed, and be king or chief, was current among the Jews; the stone itself being guarded by them with jealous care.
On the first destruction of Jerusalem, some of the royal family of Judah are supposed to have escaped, and to have gone in search of an asylum beyond the sea, taking this precious stone with them. Their resting-place was Ireland, where they founded a kingdom. Many centuries afterwards, a brother of the king descended from these exiles, named Fergus, went, with his brother's permission, to found a kingdom in Scotland. He said, however, he would not go without the sacred stone. This his brother refused to give him; but Fergus stole it, and established a kingdom in Scotland. His descendants became kings of all Scotland, and were crowned sitting on that stone, {124} which was taken away by Edward I., and is now in Westminster Abbey.
These are the outlines of this tradition. My object now is to ask whether any of your correspondents can inform me, first, Whether the Jews had, or have, any like superstition concerning Jacob's pillar; and whether the royal family of Judah possessed such a stone among their treasures? Secondly, Whether any Jews are supposed to have settled in Ireland at so early a period; and whether (that being the case) there are now, or were once, proofs of their having done so, either in the Irish language or in any of the ancient laws, customs, buildings, &c. of the country? Thirdly, Whether the Scotch believe that stone to have come from Ireland; and whether that belief in the owner of it being king existed in Scotland? and, lastly, Can any of your correspondents, learned in geology, inform me whether the like kind of stone is to be met with in any part of the British Isles? or whether, as the legend runs, a similar kind of stone is found in the Arabian plains? The story has interested me greatly; and if I could gain any enlightenment on the subject, I should be much obliged for it.
AN INDIAN SUBSCRIBER.
[Several of our historians, as Matthew of Westminster, Hector Boethius, Robert of Gloucester, the poet Harding, &c., have noticed this singular legend; but we believe the Rabbinical writers (as suggested by our Indian correspondent) have never been consulted respecting it. Sandford, in his valuable _History of the Coronation of James II_. (fol., 1687, p. 39.), has given some dates and names which will probably assist our correspondents in elucidating the origin of this far-famed relic. He says, "Jacob's stone, or _The Fatal Marble Stone_, is an oblong square, about twenty-two inches long, thirteen inches broad, and eleven inches deep, of a bluish steel-like colour, mixed with some veins of red; whereof history relates that it is the stone whereon the patriarch Jacob is said to have lain his head in the plain of Luza. That it was brought to Brigantia in the kingdom of Gallacia in Spain, in which place Gathal, King of Scots, sat on it as his throne. Thence it was brought into Ireland by Simon Brech, first King of Scots, about 700 years before Christ's time, and from thence into Scotland, by King Fergus, about 330 years before Christ. In the year 850 it was placed in the abbey of Scone in the sherifdom of Perth by King Kenneth, who caused it to be inclosed in a wooden chair (now called St. Edward's Chair), and this prophetical distich engraven on it:
'Ni fallat Fatum, Scoti hunc quocunque locatum Inveniunt lapidem, regnare tenentur ibidem.'
'If Fates go right, where'er this stone is found, The Scots shall monarchs of that realm be crown'd.'
Which is the more remarkable by being fulfilled in the person of James I. of England." Calmet, however, states that the Mahometans profess to have this relic in their custody. He says, The Mahometans think that Jacob's stone was conveyed to the Temple of Jerusalem, and is still preserved in the mosque there, where the Temple formerly stood. They call it _Al-sakra_, or the stone of unction. The Cadi Gemaleddin, son of Vallel, writes, that passing through Jerusalem, in his way to Egypt, he saw Christian priests carrying glass phials full of wine over the Sakra, near which the Mussulmen had built their temple, which, for this reason, they call the Temple of the Stone. The wine which the Christian priests set upon the stone was no doubt designed for the celebration of mass there."]
* * * * *
OLD MEREWORTH CASTLE, KENT.
Among your subscribers there are doubtless many collectors of topographical drawings and engravings. I shall feel specially obliged if any of them could find in their collections a view of old Mereworth Castle (as it stood prior to the comparatively modern erection of Lord Westmoreland), and furnish me with a long desiderated description of it. Local tradition represents it as having been a baronial castle rising from the middle of a small lake, like that of Leeds, though of smaller dimensions, with the parish church attached. I should rather conjecture it to have been an ancient moated manor-house, magnified, in the course of tradition, into a baronial castle and lake.
Whatever the old building was, it was pulled down by John, seventh Earl of Westmoreland, during the first half of the last century. Had it been of the character of Leeds Castle, as the representative of a long line of baronial ancestry, he would hardly have levelled such a structure, with all its inspiring associations, merely for the purpose of gratifying his passion for Palladian architecture by the erection of the present mansion.
The ancient building seems to have been the residence of the knightly family of De Mereworth during the twelfth, thirteenth, and part of the fourteenth centuries, and from that time, till near the end of Elizabeth's reign, it ceased to be a _family residence_; for, after passing through various hands (none of whom were likely to have resided there), it descended in 1415 to Joan, wife of the Lord Burgavenny, sister and coheir to the Earl of Arundel. The Burgavennys of that day resided always at their castle of Birling, which circumstance would intimate that it was a grander and more baronial residence than Mereworth Castle (for they had come into possession of both estates very nearly at the same period); and afterwards Mereworth by settlement passed to Sir Thomas Fane of Badsell, in marriage with Mary, daughter and sole heiress of Henry Lord Burgavenny, and "jure suo" Baroness Despencer, in 1574. From that time till its dismantling in the last century, Mereworth Castle was again a family residence, the seat of the Earls of Westmoreland; Francis, eldest son of said Sir Thomas {125} Fane and Mary Baroness Despencer, having been advanced to that earldom. As the seat of a noble family for more than a century and a half, it is hardly likely that no view should have been taken of it; I have searched, however, in vain for it in Harris, Buck, and other published collections.
It would be a matter of special interest to many besides myself, to obtain some information respecting it.