Chapter 4

"In _The Privy Purse Expenses of King Henry VIII._ edited by Sir Harris Nicolas, there occur several entries of payments made to the choristers of Windsor 'in rewarde for the king's spurs'; which the editor supposes to mean 'money paid to redeem the king's spurs, which had become the fee of the choristers at Windsor, perhaps at installations, or at the annual celebration of St. George's feast.' No notice of the subject occurs in Ashmole's or Anstis's _History of the Order of the Garter_. Mr. Markland, quoting a note to Gifford's edition of Ben Jonson, vol. ii. p. 49., says, 'In the time of Ben Jonson, in consequence of the interruptions to Divine Service occasioned by the ringing of the spurs worn by persons walking and transacting business in cathedrals, and especially in St. Paul's, a small fine was imposed on them, called "spur-money," the exaction of which was committed to the beadles and singing-boys.' This practice, and to which, probably, the items in Henry's household-book bear reference, still obtains, or, at least, did till very lately, in the Chapel Royal and other choirs. Our informant himself claimed the penalty, in Westminster Abbey, from Dr. Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, and received from him an eighteenpenny bank token as the fine. He likewise claimed the penalty from the King of Hanover (then Duke of Cumberland), for entering the choir of the Abbey in his spurs. But His Royal Highness, who had been installed there, excused himself with great readiness, pleading 'his right to wear his spurs in that church, inasmuch as it was the place where they were first put on him!'--See further, _European Mag._, vol. iii. p. 16."]

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MINIMUM DE MALIS.

(_FROM THE LATIN OF BUCHANAN._)

Calenus owed a single pound, which yet With all my dunning I could never get. Tired of fair words, whose falsehood I foresaw, I hied to Aulus, learned in the law. He heard my story, bade me "Never fear, There was no doubt--no case could be more clear:-- He'd do the needful in the proper place, And give his best attention to the case." And this he may have done--for it appears To have been his business for the last ten years, Though on his pains ten times ten pounds bestow'd Have not regain'd that one Calenus owed. Now, fearful lest this unproductive strife Consume at once my fortune and my life, I take the only course I can pursue, And shun my debtor and my lawyer too. I've no more hope from promises or laws, And heartily renounce both debt and cause-- But if with either rogue I've more to do, I'll surely choose my debtor of the two; For though I credit not the lies he tells, At least he _gives_ me what the other _sells_.

Rufus.

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_Epigram on Louis XIV._--I find the following epigram among some old papers. The emperor would be Leopold I., the king Louis XIV.

_Epigram by the Emperor, 1666, and the King of France._

Bella fugis, sequeris bellas, pugnaeque repugnas, Et bellatori sunt tibi bella tori. Imbelles imbellis amas, totusque videris Mars ad opus Veneris, Martis ad arma Venus.

J.H.L.

_Macaulay's Young Levite._--I met, the other day with a rather curious confirmation of a passage in Macaulay's _History of England_, which has been more assailed perhaps than any other.

In his character of the clergy, Macaulay says, they frequently married domestics and retainers of great houses--a statement which has grievously excited the wrath of Mr. Babington and other champions. In a little book, once very popular, first published in 1628, with the title _Microcosmographie, or a Piece of the World discovered_, and which is known to have been written by John Earle, after the Restoration Bishop of Worcester and then of Salisbury, is the following passage. It occurs in what the author calls a character of "a young raw preacher."

"You shall know him by his narrow velvet cape and serge facing, and his ruffe, next his hire, the shortest thing about him.... His friends, and much painefulnesse, may preferre him to thirtie pounds a yeere, and this meanes, to a chamber-maide: with whom we leave him now in the bonds of wedlocke. Next Sunday you shall have him againe."

The same little book contains many very curious and valuable illustrations of contemporary manners, especially in the universities.

That the usage Macaulay refers to was not uncommon, we find from a passage in the _Woman-Hater_, by Beaumont and Fletcher (1607), Act III. Sc. 3.

Lazarillo says,

"Farewell ye courtly chaplains that be there! All good attend you! May you never more Marry your patron's lady's waiting-woman!"

I.T.

Trin. Coll. Camb., March 16. 1850. {375}

_St. Martin's Lane_.--The first building leases of St. Martin's Lane and the adjacent courts accidentally came under my notice lately. They are dated in 1635 and 1636, and were granted by the then Earl of Bedford.

Arun.

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CHARLES DEERING, M.D.

"Author of the Catalogue of Plants in the neighbourhood of Nottingham. 'Catalogus Stirpium, &c., or a Catalogue of Plants naturally growing and commonly cultivated in divers parts of England, and especially about Nottingham,' 8vo. Nottingh. 1738.

"He was in the suite of the English ambassador to Russia, returned and practised physic in London married unfortunately, buried his wife, and then went to Nottingham, where he lived several years. During his abode there he wrote a small _Treatise on the Small Pocks_, this _Catalogue of Plants_, and the _History of Nottingham_, the materials for which John Plumtre, Esq. of Nottingham, was so obliging as to assist him with. He also was paid 40l. by a London bookseller for adding 20,000 words to an English dictionary. He was master of seven languages, and in 1746 he was favoured with a commission in the Nottinghamshire Foot, raised at that time. Soon after died, and was buried in St. Peter's Churchyard.

"William Ayscough, father of the printer of this _Catalogus Stirpium_ (G. Ayscough), in 1710, first introduced the art of printing at Nottingham.

"Mr. White was the same year the first printer at Newcastle-upon-Tyne; and Mr. Dicey at Northampton."--_MS. Note in the Copy of the Cat. Stirpium, in the Library of the British Museum_.

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MISCELLANEOUS.

NOTES ON BOOKS, CATALOGUES, SALES, ETC.

Our advertising columns already show some of the good results of the _Exhibition of the Works of Ancient and Mediaeval Art_. Mr. Williams announced last week his _Historic Reliques_, to be etched by himself. Mr. Cundall has issued proposals for _Choice Examples of Art Workmanship_; and, lastly, we hear that an _Illustrated Catalogue of the Exhibition_, prepared by Mr. Franks, the zealous Honorary Secretary of the Committee, and so arranged as to form a _History of Art_, may be expected. We mention these for the purpose of inviting our friends to contribute to the several editors such information as they may think likely to increase the value of the respective works.

The second edition of our able correspondent, Mr. Peter Cunningham's _Handbook of London_, is on the eve of publication.

There are few of our readers but will be glad to learn from the announcement in a previous column, that the edition of the _Wickliffite Versions of the Scriptures_, upon which Sir Frederick Madden and his fellow labourers have been engaged for a period of twenty years, is just completed. It forms, we believe, three quarto volumes.

Messrs. Puttick and Simpson lately disposed of a most select and interesting collection of autograph letters. We unfortunately did not receive the catalogue in time to notice it, which we the more regret, because, like all their catalogues of autographs, it was drawn up with amateur-like intelligence and care; so as to make it worth preserving as a valuable record of materials for our history and biography.

We have received the following Catalogues of Books:--No. XXV. of Thomas Cole's (15. Great Turnstile): No. 2. for 1850, of William Heath's (291/2 Lincoln's Inn Fields); and No. 15. of Bernard Quarritch's (16. Castle Street, Leicester Square) Catalogue of Oriental and Foreign Books.

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BOOKS AND ODD VOLUMES

WANTED TO PURCHASE

(_IN CONTINUATION OF LISTS IN FORMER NOS._)

Mills, Rev. Isaac, of Highcleer--Account of the Life and Conversation of, with a Sermon, 8vo., 1721.

Mykur Hazem, by Marcus, London, 1846.

Poems by a Bornnatural, 1849.

_ODD VOLUMES_.

Proceedings of the Philological Society. Vol. I.

Richardson's Correspondence, Vol. I. of the Six-Volume Ed.

Todd's Johnson's Dictionary, 4to., 1819. (Part X. containing Title, Preface, &c.)

Partington's British Cyclopaedia--That portion of Natural History which follows Vol. I.

*** 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.

Burning for Treason.--Can the Correspondent who furnished us with a curious Note upon this subject favour us with a copy of it, the original having been accidentally mislaid?

We are again compelled, from want of space, to omit many curious and interesting articles; and, after this statement, must beg our kind friends at Leeds, Brompton, &c., who complain of delay in the insertion of their communications, to do us the favour to refer to the notice on this very subject which appeared in our early numbers.

Notes and Queries may be procured by the Trade at noon on Friday: so that our country Subscribers ought to experience no difficulty in receiving it regularly. Many of the country Booksellers are probably not yet aware of this arrangement, which enables them to receive Copies in their Saturday parcels. Part V. is now ready.

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THE QUARTERLY REVIEW,

No. CLXXII. is Published This Day.

CONTENTS: I. GIACOMO LEOPARDI AND HIS WRITINGS. II. RANKE'S HOUSE OF BRANDENBURG. III. QUEEN'S COLLEGE, LONDON. IV. GROTE'S HISTORY OF GREECE. V. URQUHART'S PILLARS OF HERCULES. VI. FACTS IN FIGURES. VII. THE DUTIFUL SON. VIII. CUNNINGHAM'S HANDBOOK OF LONDON. IX. BAXTER'S IMPRESSIONS OF EUROPE. X. LORD LIEUTENANT CLARENDON. XI. LOUIS PHILIPPE.

John Murray, Albemarle Street.

* * * * *

NEARLY READY.

A Prospectus, containing a Specimen of the Illustrations, will be sent on receipt of two postage stamps.

Joseph Cundall, 21. Old Bond Street.

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MILLER'S CATALOGUE OF ANCIENT AND MODERN BOOKS.--NUMBER FOUR is ready this day, and can be had Gratis, and sent, if required, Postage Free. Address, John Miller, 43, Chandos Street, Trafalgar Square. This List embraces numerous valuable and interesting Books on English Poetry, the Drama, History, Biography, Voyages and Travels, &c., with the works of a few of the best Continental writers, a selection of Pictorial Books of Scenery, Costume, Topography, and Drawing-room Table Books.

Also, on forwarding Four Postage Stamps, JOHN MILLER'S CATALOGUE OF BOOKS FOR THE PAST QUARTER may be had stitched in a wrapper, with a Table of Contents, showing at one glance the range of subjects embraced, amongst which may be enumerated the following, viz., America, Angling, Banking and Currency, Coins, Dictionaries, Drawing-books, Games, Sports, &c., Heraldry, Genealogy and Family History, Ireland, its History and Literature, Kent, its History and Topography, Law, Music, its History and Theory, Painting and the Fine Arts, Shakspeariana, and a variety of other branches of Literature comprised in upwards of 1500 articles.

John Miller, 43. Chandos Street, Trafalgar Square.

* * * * *

THE ANGLO-SAXON, for April, Price 2s. 6d. or 3s. post-free, contains England and her Colonies: County Colonisation, with Maps--English Church Music--Christian Architecture--London: a Poem, Essay II.--The Alfred Medals: Three Sonnets, by Martin F. Tupper--Anglo-Saxon Literature: the Jubilee Edition of King Alfred's Works, with Specimens and Translations--Wives and Mothers--Anglo-Saxon Colonies: Victoria, Cooksland, Port Essington, (Papua--Timor)--Original Ballads.

The ANGLO-SAXON for 1849 forms a handsome volume, price One Guinea.

London: T. Bosworth, 215. Regent Street.

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Published every Saturday, price 3d., or stamped, 4d., also in Monthly Parts. Part V. (for March), price 1s. 3d., now ready.

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Just Published, Parts 13 and 14, imperial quarto. Price 3_s._ each, tinted 4s.

RELIQUES OF ANCIENT ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE, from Drawings by John Johnson, Architect, F.S.A., Lithographed by Alfred Newman.

Contents, Part 13:--Hawton Church; Notts.--St. Mary's, Stamford--Aldwinkle, All Saints, Northamptonshire-Wellingborough Church, Northamptonshire.

Part 14--Skelton Church, from the South-East and South-West--Rye House, Herts.--Holbeach Church, Lincolnshire.

This Work is intended to embrace a series of examples of Ecclesiastical, Collegiate, and Domestic Architecture. It will be completed in Twenty Monthly Parts, price 3s. each, tinted 4s.

London: George Bell, 186. Fleet Street.

* * * * *

Preparing for immediate Publication, in 2 vols. small octavo.

THE FOLK-LORE OF ENGLAND. By William J. Thoms, F.S.A., Secretary of the Camden Society, Editor of "Early Prose Romances," "Lays and Legends of all Nations," &c. One object of the present work is to furnish new contributions to the History of our National Folk-Lore; and especially some of the more striking illustrations of the subject to be found in the Writings of Jacob Grimm and other Continental Antiquaries.

Communications of inedited Legends, Notices of remarkable Customs and Popular Observances, Rhyming Charms, &c. are earnestly solicited, and will be thankfully acknowledged by the Editor. They may be addressed to the care of Mr. Bell, Office of "Notes and Queries," 186. Fleet Street.

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Printed by Thomas Clark Shaw, of No. 8. New Street Square, at No. 5. New Street Square, in the Parish of St. Bride, in the City of London; and published by George Bell, of No. 186. Fleet Street, in the Parish of St. Dunstan in The West, in the City of London, Publisher, at No. 186. Fleet Street aforesaid.--Saturday, April 6, 1850.

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