Part 4

Sometimes the lady has two little dogs, as Lady Bagot, at Baginton, Warwickshire, 1407; and in one instance, that of Lady Peryent, at Digswell, Herts, 1415, there is a hedgehog, the meaning of which is sufficiently obvious. B. H. ALFORD, in noticing the omission of the dog in the brass of Lady Camoys at Trotton, 1424, has not mentioned a singular substitute which is found for it, namely, the figure of a boy or young man, standing by the lady's right foot: but what this means I cannot attempt to determine; perhaps her only son.

It may be interesting to add that some brasses of ecclesiastics exhibit strange figures, not easy to interpret, if meant as symbolical. The brass at {250} Oulton, of the priest ---- de Bacon, 1310, has a lion; that of the Abbot Delamere, at St. Albans, 1375, two dragons; that of a priest at North Mimms, about 1360, a stag; and, still more extraordinary, that of Laurence Seymour, a priest, at Higham Ferrers, 1337, two dogs contending for a bone.

F. C. H.

* * * * *

SNEEZING.

(Vol. viii., pp. 366. 624.; Vol. ix., p. 63.)

I can add another item of the folk lore to those already quoted. One of the salutations, by which a sneezer is greeted amongst the lower class of Romans at the present day, is _Figli maschi_, "May you have male children!"

The best essay on _sneezing_, that I am acquainted with, is to be found in Strada's _Prolusions_, book iii. Prol. 4., in which he replies at some length, and not unamusingly, to the Query, "Why are sneezers saluted?" It seems to have arisen out of an occurrence which had recently taken place at Rome, that a certain _Pistor Suburranus_, after having sneezed twenty-three times consecutively, had expired at the twenty-fourth sneeze: and his object is to prove that Sigonius was mistaken in supposing that the custom of saluting a sneezer had only dated from the days of Gregory the Great, when many had died of the plague in the act of sneezing. In opposition to this notion, he adduces passages from Apuleius and Petronius Arbiter, besides those from Ammianus, Athenaeus, Aristotle, and Homer, already quoted in your pages by MR. F. J. SCOTT. He then proceeds to give five causes from which the custom may have sprung, and classifies them as religious, medical, facetious, poetical, and augural.

Under the first head, he argues that the salutation given to sneezers is not a mere expression of good wishes, but a kind of veneration: "for," says he, "we rise to a person sneezing, and humbly uncover our heads, and deal reverently with him." In proof of this position, he tells us that in Ethiopia, when the emperor sneezed, the salutations of his adoring gentlemen of the privy chamber were so loudly uttered as to be heard and re-echoed by the whole of his court; and thence repeated in the streets, so that the whole city was in simultaneous commotion.

The other heads are then pursued with considerable learning, and some humour; and, under the last, he refers us to St. Augustin, _De Doctr. Christ._ ii. 20., as recording that--

"When the ancients were getting up in the morning, if they chanced to sneeze whilst putting on their shoes, they immediately went back to bed again, in order that they might get up more auspiciously, and escape the misfortunes which were likely to occur on that day."

One almost wishes that people now-a-days would sometimes consent to follow their example, when they have "got out of bed the wrong way."

C. W. BINGHAM.

* * * * *

SIR JOHN DE MORANT.

(Vol. ix., p. 56.)

In answer to the Query of H. H. M., I beg to state that the Sir John de Morant chronicled by Froissart was Jean de Morant, Chevalier, Seigneur d'Escours, and other lordships in Normandy. He was fourth in descent from Etienne de Morant, Chevalier, living A.D. 1245, and son of Etienne de Morant and his wife Marie de Pottier. His posterity branched off into many noble Houses; as the Marquis de Morant, and Mesnil-Garnier, the Count de Panzes, the Barons of Fontenay, Rupierre, Bieville, Coulonces, the Seigneurs de Courseulles, Brequigny, &c.

The Sire Jean de Morant, born A.D. 1346, was the hero of the following adventure, quoted from an ancient chronicle of Brittany, by Chesnaye-Desbois. It appears that the Sire de Morant was one of five French knights, who fought a combat _a l'outrance_ against an equal number of English challengers, with the sanction, and in the presence, of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, A.D. 1381-2. The result was in favour of the French. The chronicle proceeds:

"Le Sire de Morant s'etant principalement distingue dans cette action, un Chevalier Anglois lui propose de venger, tete-a-tete, la defaite de ses compatriotes, et qu'ils en vinrent aux mains; mais que l'Anglois, qu'une indisposition aux genouils avoit force de combattre sans bottes garnies, avoit engage son adversaire de quitter les siennes, en promettant, parole d'honneur, de ne point abuser de cette condescendance, a quoi le Sire de Morant consentit: le perfide Anglois ne lui tint pas parole, et lui porta trois coups d'epee dans la jambe. Le Duc de Lancastre, qui en fut temoin, fit arreter ce lache, et le fit mettre entre les mains du Sire de Morant, pour tirer telle vengeance qu'il jugeroit a propos, ou du moins le contraindre a lui payer une forte rancon. Le Seigneur de Morant remercia ce Prince, en lui disant 'qu'il etoit venu de Bretagne non pour de l'or, mais pour l'honneur' et le supplia de recevoir en grace l'Anglois, attribuant a son peu d'adresse ce qui n'etoit que l'effet de sa trahison. Le Duc de Lancastre, charme d'une si belle reponse, lui envoya une coupe d'or et une somme considerable. Morant refusa la somme, et se contenta de la coupe d'or, par respect pour le Prince."

There is a short account of the branch of Morant de Mesnil-Garnier in the _Genealogie de France_, by Le Pere Anselme, vol. ix.; but a very full and complete pedigree is contained in the eighth volume of the _Dict. de la Noblesse Francaise_, by M. de la Chesnaye-Desbois. {251}

As the Rev. Philip Morant was a native of Jersey, it is more than probable that he was an offset of the ancient Norman stock, though their armorial bearings are widely different. The latter bore, Azure, three cormorants argent; but the family of Astle, of Colne Park in Essex, are said to quarter for Morant, Gules, on a chevron argent, three talbots passant sable.

Having only a daughter and heiress, married to Thomas Astle, Keeper of the Records in the Tower of London, the reverend historian of Essex could hardly have been the ancestor of the Morants of Brockenhurst.

There was also another family in Normandy, named Morant de Bois-ricard, in no way connected with the first, who bore Gules, a bend ermine.

JOHN O' THE FORD.

Malta.

* * * * *

INN SIGNS.

(Vol. ix., p. 148.)

ALPHEGE will find a good paper on the origin of signs in the _Mirror_, vol. ii. p. 387.; also an article on the present specimens of country ale-house signs, in the first volume of the same interesting periodical, p. 101. In Hone's _Every-Day Book_, vol. i., are notices of curious signs at pp. 1262. and 1385. In vol. ii. some very amusing specimens are given at p. 789. Others occur in Hone's _Table-Book_, at pp. 448. 504. and 756.

F. C. H.

I can answer ALPHEGE's Query, having some notes by me on the subject. He will pardon my throwing them, in a shapeless heap, jolting out as you unload stones.

The Romans had signs; and at Pompeii a pig over the door represents a wine-shop within. The Middle Ages adopted a bush. "Good wine needs no bush," &c., answering to the gilded grapes at a modern vintner's. The bush is still a common sign. At Charles I.'s death, a cavalier landlord painted his bush black. Then came the modern square sign, formerly common to all trades. Old signs are generally heraldic, and represent royal bearings, or the blazonings of great families. The White Hart was peculiar to Richard II; the White Swan of Henry IV. and Edward III.; the Blue Boar of Richard III.; the Red Dragon came in with the Tudors. Then we have the Bear and Ragged Staff of Leicester, &c. Monograms are common; as Bolt and Tun for _Bolton_; Hare and Tun for _Harrington_. The Three Suns is the favourite bearing of Edward IV.; and all Roses, white or red (as at Tewkesbury), are indications of political predilection. Other signs commemorate historical events; as the Bull and Mouth, Bull and Gate (the Boulogne engagement in Henry VIII.'s time, and alluded to by Shakspeare). The Pilgrim, Cross Keys, Salutation, Catherine Wheel, Angel, Three Kings, Seven Stars, St. Francis, &c., are medieval signs. Many are curiously corrupted; as the Coeur Dore (Golden Heart) to the Queer Door; Bacchanals (the Bag of Nails); Pig and Whistle (Peg and Wassail Bowl); the Swan and Two Necks (literally Two _Nicks_); Goat and Compasses (God encompasseth us); The Bell Savage (La Belle Sauvage, or Isabel Savage); the Goat in the Golden Boots (from the Dutch, Goed in der Gooden Boote), Mercury, or the God in the Golden Boots. The Puritans altered many of the monastic signs; as the Angel and Lady, to the Soldier and Citizen. In signs we may read every phase of ministerial popularity, and all the ebbs and flows of war in the Sir Home Popham, Rodney, Shovel, Duke of York, Wellington's Head, &c. At Chelsea, a sign called the "Snow Shoes," I believe, still indicates the excitement of the American war.

I shall be happy to send ALPHEGE more instances, or to answer any conjectures.

G. W. THORNBURY.

A century ago, when the houses in streets were unnumbered, they were distinguished by sign-boards. The chemist had the dragon (some astrological device); the pawnbroker the three golden pills, the arms of the Medici and Lombardy, as the descendant of the ancient bankers of England; the barber-chirurgeon the pole for the wig, and the parti-coloured ribands to bind up the patient's wounds after blood-letting; the haberdasher and wool-draper the golden fleece; the tobacconist the snuff-taking Highlander; the vintner the bunch of grapes and ivy-bush; and the Church and State bookseller the Bible and crown. The Crusaders brought in the signs of the Saracen's Head, the Turk's Head, and the Golden Cross. Near the church were found the Lamb and Flag, The Bell, the Cock of St. Peter, the Maiden's Head, and the Salutation of St. Mary. The Chequers commemorated the licence granted by the Earls of Arundel, or Lords Warrenne. The Blue Boar was the cognizance of the House of Oxford (and so The Talbots, The Bears, White Lions, &c. may usually be reasonably referred to the supporters of the arms of noble families, whose tenants the tavern landlords were). The Bull and Mouth, the hostelry of the voyager to Boulogne Harbour. The Castle, The Spread Eagle, and The Globe (Alphonso's), were probably adopted from the arms of Spain, Germany, and Portugal, by inns which were the resort of merchants from those countries. The Belle Sauvage recalled some show of the day; the St. George and Dragon commemorated the badge of the Garter, the Rose and Fleur-de-Lys, the Tudors; The Bull, The Falcon, {252} and Plume of Feathers, Edward IV.; the Swan and Antelope were the arms of Henry V.; the chained or White Hart of Richard II.; the Sun and Boar of King Richard III.; the Greyhound and Green Dragon of Henry VII. The Bag o' Nails disguised the former Bacchanals; the Cat and Fiddle the Caton Fidele; the Goat and Compasses was the rebus of the Puritan motto "God encompasseth us." The Swan with Two Nicks represented the Thames swans, so marked on their bills under the "conservatory" of the Goldsmiths' Company. The Cocoa Tree and Thatched House tell their own tale; so the Coach and Horses, reminding us of the times when the superior inns were the only posting-houses, in distinction to such as bore the sign of the Pack-Horse. The Fox and Goose denoted the games played within; the country inn, the Hare and Hounds, the vicinity of a sporting squire.

MACKENZIE WALCOTT, M.A.

ALPHEGE will find some information on this subject in Lower's _Curiosities of Heraldry_, _The Beaufoy Tokens_ (printed by the Corporation of London), and the _Journal of the Archaeological Association_ for April, 1853.

WILLIAM KELLY.

Leicester.

There are a series of articles on this subject in the _Gentleman's Magazine_, vol. lxxxviii., parts i. and ii., and vol. lxxxix. parts i. and ii. Taylor the Water-poet wrote _A Catalogue of Memorable Places and Taverns within Ten Shires of England_, London, 1636, 8vo. Much information will also be found in Akerman's _Tokens_, and Burn's _Catalogue of the Beaufoy Cabinet_.

ZEUS.

* * * * *

"CONSILIUM DELECTORUM CARDINALIUM."

(Vol. viii., p. 54. Vol. ix., pp. 127-29.)

Novus did not require correction; but MR. B. B. WOODWARD has elaborately confounded the genuine _Consilium_ of 1537 with Vergerio's spurious Letter of Advice, written in 1549. _Four_ cardinals, and not _nine_ (as MR. WOODWARD supposes), subscribed the authentic document; but perhaps _novem_ may have been a corruption of _novum_, applied to the later Bolognese _Consilium_; or else the word was intended to denote the number of _all_ the dignitaries who addressed Pope Paul III.

R. G.

"This Consilium was the result of an assembly of four cardinals, among whom was our Pole, and five prelates, by Paul III. in 1537, charged to give him their best advice relative to a reformation of the church. The corruptions of that community were detailed and denounced with more freedom than might have been expected, or was probably desired; so much so, that when one of the body, Cardinal Caraffa, assumed the tiara as Paul IV., he transferred his own _advice_ into his own list of prohibited books. The Consilium became the subject of an animated controversy. McCrie in his _History of the Reformation in Italy_, has given a satisfactory account of the whole, pp. 83, &c. The candid Quirini could maintain neither the spuriousness of this important document, nor its non-identity with the one condemned in the Index. (See Schelborn's Two Epistles on the subject, Tiguri, 1748.) And now observe, gentle reader, the pontifical artifice which this discussion has produced. Not in the Index following the year 1748, namely, that of 1750 (that was too soon), but in the next, that of 1758, the article appears thus: 'Consilium de emendanda Ecclesia. _Cum Notis vel Praefationibus Haereticorum. Ind. Trid._' The whole, particularly the Ind. Trid., is an implied and real falsehood."-- Mendham's _Literary Policy of the Church of Rome_, pp. 48, 49.

M. Barbier, in his _Dictionnaire des Pseudoynmes_, has given his opinion of the genuineness of the Consilium in the following note, in reply to some queries on the subject:

"Monsieur.--Le _Consilium quorundam Episcoporum_, &c., me parait une piece bien authentique, puisque Brown declare l'avoir trouve non-seulement dans les oeuvres de Vergerio, mais encore dans les _Lectiones Memorabiles_, en 2 vol. in fol. par Wolphius. _Je ne connais rien contre_ cette piece.

"J'ai l'honneur, &c.

"BARBIER."

The learned Lorente has reprinted the "Concilium" also in his work entitled _Monumens Historiques concernant les deux Pragmatiques Sanctions_. There can, therefore, be no just grounds for doubting the character of this precious article.

BIBLIOTHECAR. CHETHAM.

* * * * *

PULPIT HOUR-GLASSES.

(Vol. viii., pp. 82. 209. 279. 328. 454. 525.)

I should be glad to see some more information in your pages relative to the _early_ use of the pulpit hour-glass. It is said that the ancient fathers preached, as the old Greek and Roman orators declaimed, by this instrument; but were the sermons of the ancient fathers an hour long? Many of those in St. Augustine's ten volumes might be delivered with distinctness in seven or eight minutes; and some of those of Latimer and his contemporaries, in about the same time. But, Query, are not the _printed_ sermons of these divines merely outlines, to be filled up by the preacher _extempore_? Dyos, in a sermon preached at Paul's Cross, in 1570, speaking of the walking and profane talking in the church at sermon time, also laments how they grudged the preacher his _customary hour_. So that an hour seems to have been the practice at the Reformation. {253}

The hour-glass was used equally by the Catholics and Protestants. In an account of the fall of the house in Blackfriars, where a party of Romanists were assembled to hear one of their preachers, in 1623, the preacher is described as--

"Having on a surplice, girt about his middle with a linnen girdle, and a tippet of scarlet on both his shoulders. He was attended by a man that brought after him his book and _hour-glass_."--See _The Fatal Vespers_, by Samuel Clark, London, 1657.

In the Preface to the Bishops' _Bible_, printed by John Day in 1569, Archbishop Parker is represented with an _hour-glass_ at his right hand. And in a work by Franchinus Gaffurius, entitled _Angelicum ac Divinum opus Musice_, printed at Milan in 1508, is a curious representation of the author seated in a pulpit, with a book in his hand; an _hour-glass_ on one side, and a bottle on the other; lecturing to an audience of twelve persons. This woodcut is engraved in the second volume of Hawkins' _History of Music_, p. 333.

Hour-glasses were often very elegantly formed, and of rich materials. Shaw, in his _Dresses and Decorations of the Middle Ages_, has given an engraving of one in the cabinet of M. Debruge at Paris. It is richly enamelled, and set with jewels. In the churchwardens' accounts of Lambeth Church are two entries respecting the hour-glass: the first is in 1579, when 1s. 4d. was "payd to Yorke for the frame in which the _hower_ standeth;" and the second in 1615, when 6s. 8d. was "payd for an iron for the _hour-glasse_." In an inventory of the goods and implements belonging to the church of All Saints, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, taken about 1632, mention is made of "one _whole_ hour-glasse," and of "one _halfe_ hour-glasse." (See Brand's _Newcastle_, vol. i. p. 370.).

Fosbroke says, "Preaching by the _hour-glass_ was put an end to by the Puritans" (_Ency. of Antiq._, vol. i. pp. 273. 307.). But the account given by a correspondent of the _Gentleman's Magazine_ (1804, p. 201.) is probably more correct:

"Hour-glasses, in the puritanical days of Cromwell, were made use of by the preachers; who, on first getting into the pulpit, and naming the text, turned up the glass; and if the sermon did not hold till the glass was out, it was said by the congregation that the preacher was lazy: and if he continued to preach much longer, they would yawn and stretch, and by these signs signify to the preacher that they began to be weary of his discourse, and wanted to be dismissed."

Butler speaks of "gifted brethren preaching by a carnal _hour-glass_" (_Hudibras_, Part I., canto III., v. 1061.). And in the frontispiece of Dr. Young's book, entitled _England's Shame, or a Relation of the Life and Death of Hugh Peters_, London, 1663, Peters is represented preaching, and holding an _hour-glass_ in his left hand, in the act of saying: "I know you are good fellows, so let's have another _glass_." The same words, or something very similar, are attributed to the Nonconformist minister, Daniel Burgess. Mr. Maidment, in a note to "The New Litany," printed in his _Third Book of Scottish Pasquils_ (Edin., 1828, p. 49.), also gives the following version of the same:

"A humorous story has been preserved of one of the Earls of Airly, who entertained at his table a clergyman, who was to preach before the Commissioner next day. The glass circulated, perhaps too freely; and whenever the divine attempted to rise, his Lordship prevented him, saying, 'Another glass, and then.' After 'flooring' (if the expression may be allowed) his Lordship, the guest went home. He next day selected a text: 'The wicked shall be punished, and that RIGHT EARLY.' Inspired by the subject, he was by no means sparing of his oratory, and the hour-glass was disregarded, although repeatedly warned by the precentor; who, in common with Lord Airly, thought the discourse rather lengthy. The latter soon knew why he was thus punished by the reverend gentleman, when reminded, always exclaiming, _not_ sotto voce, 'Another glass, and then.'"

Hogarth, in his "Sleeping Congregation," has introduced an hour-glass on the left side of the preacher; and Mr. Ireland observes, in his description of this plate, that they are "still placed on some of the pulpits in the provinces." At Waltham, in Leicestershire, by the side of the pulpit was (or is) an hour-glass in an iron frame, mounted on three high wooden brackets. (See Nichols' _Leicestershire_, vol. ii p. 382.) A bracket for the support of an hour-glass is still preserved, affixed to the pulpit of Hurst Church, in Berkshire: it is of iron, painted and gilt. An interesting notice, accompanied by woodcuts, of a number of existing specimens of hour-glass frames, was contributed to the _Journal of the British Archaeological Association_, vol. iii., 1848, by Mr. Fairholt, to which I refer the reader for farther information.

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

I remember to have seen it stated in some antiquarian journal, that there are only three hour-glass stands in England where any portion of the glass is remaining. In Cowden Church, in Kent, the glass is nearly entire. Perhaps some of your readers will be able to mention the two other places.

W. D. H.

In Salhouse Church, near Norwich, an iron hour-glass stand still remains fixed to the pulpit; and a bell on the screen, between the nave and the chancel.

C--s. T. P.

At Berne, in the autumn of last year, I saw an hour-glass stand _still_ attached to the pulpit in the minster.

W. SPARROW SIMPSON.

* * * * *

{254}

PHOTOGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE.

_A Prize for the best Collodion._--Your "Hint to the Photographic Society" (Feb. 25) I much approve of, but I have always found more promptness from individuals than from associated bodies; and all photographers I deem to be under great obligations to _you_ in affording us a medium of communication before a Photographic Society was in existence. During the past month your valuable articles, from some of our most esteemed photographists, show that your pages are the agreeable medium of publishing their researches. I would therefore respectfully suggest that you should yourself offer a prize for the best mode of making a good useful collodion, and that that prize should be a complete set of your valuable journal, which now, I believe, is progressing with its ninth volume. You might associate two independent names with your own, in testing the merits of any sample supplied to you, and a condition should be that the formula should be published in "N. & Q." Your observations upon the manufacturers of paper, respecting the intrinsic value of a premium, are equally applicable to this proposition, because, should the collodion prepared by any of the various dealers who at present advertise in your columns be deemed to be the most satisfactory, your sanction and that of your friends alone would be an ample recompense. I would also suggest that samples sent to you should be labelled with a motto, and a corresponding motto, _sealed_, should contain the name and address, the name and address of the successful sample _alone_ to be opened: this would effectually preclude all preconceived notions entertained by the testing manipulators who are to decide on the merits of what is submitted to them.

A READER OF "N. & Q." AND A PHOTOGRAPHER.