Chapter 3

_Dates of Maps._--It is very much to be wished that map-makers would always affix to their maps the date of their execution; the want of this in the maps of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge has often been an annoyance to me, for it frequently happens that one or both of two maps including the same district are without date, {397} and when they differ in some of the minor details, it requires some time and trouble to find, from other sources, which is the most modern, and therefore likely to be the most accurate.

J. S. WARDEN.

_Walton._--The following cotemporary notice of the decease and character of honest Isaac's son, is from a MS. Diary of the Rev. John Lewis, Rector of Chalfield and Curate of Tilbury:

"1719, Dec. 29. Mr. Canon Walton of Polshott died at Salisbury; he was one of the members of the clergy club that meets at Melksham, and a very pious, sober, learned, inoffensive, charitable, good man."

E. D.

_Whittington's Stone on Highgate Hill._--It is well that there is a "N. & Q." to record the removal and disappearance of noted objects and relics of antiquity, as one after another disappears before the destroying hand of Time, and more ruthless and relentless spirit of enterprise. I have to ask you on the present occasion to record the removal of Whittington's stone on Highgate Hill. I discovered it as I strolled up the hill a few days since. I was informed that it was removed about a fortnight since, and a public-house is now being built where it stood.

TEE BEE.

_Turkey and France._--The following fact, taken from the foreign correspondence of _The Times_, may suitably seek perpetuity in a corner of "N. & Q."

"I wish to mention a curious fact connected with the port of Toulon, and with the long existing relations between France and Turkey, and which I have not seen mentioned, although it is recorded in the municipal archives of this town. In the year 1543, the sultan, Selim II., at the request of the King of France, sent a large army and fleet to his assistance, under the command of the celebrated Turkish admiral Barbarossa, who, according to the record, was the grandson of a French renegade. This army and fleet occupied the town and port of Toulon at the express wish of Francis I., from the end of September 1543, to the end of March 1544. And on this day, the last of March 1854, a French army and fleet has sailed from the same port of Toulon to succour the descendant of the Sultan Selim in his distress. What a remarkable example of the rise and fall of empires!"

It will not invalidate the force of the foregoing extract to state, that Selim II. did not become sultan until 1566, and that it must have been his father Suleyman (whom he succeeded) who came to the rescue of France in 1543. The same Turkish fleet was afterwards nearly annihilated by the Venetians in 1571, at the battle of Lepanto.

GEO. DYMOND.

* * * * *

Queries.

A FEMALE AIDE-MAJOR.

The following is an extract from the letter of the French general, Custine, to the National Convention, June 14, 1793:

"My morality is attacked; it is found out that I have a _woman_ for my aide-de-camp. Without pretending to be a Joseph, I know too well how to respect myself, and the laws of public decency, ever to render myself guilty of such an absurdity. I found in the army a woman under the uniform of a volunteer bombardier, who, in fulfilling that duty at the siege of Liege, had received a musket-ball in the leg. She presented herself to the National Convention, desired to continue her military service, and was admitted to the honours of the sitting. She was afterwards sent by you, Representatives, to the Minister of War, who gave her the rank of aide-major to the army. On my arrival here, the representatives of the people, commissioners with this army, had dismissed her. Her grief was extreme; and the phrenzy of her imagination, and her love for glory, would have carried her to the last extremity. I solicited the representatives of the people to leave her that rank which her merit and wounds had procured her; and they consented to it. This is the truth. She is not my aide-de-camp, but _attached to the staff as aide-major_. Since that time I have never had any public or private conversation with her."--From the _Political State of Europe_, 1793, p. 164.

Can any of your readers furnish me with the name and history of this French heroine?

JAMES.

Philadelphia.

* * * * *

Minor Queries.

"_Chintz Gowns._"--Tuesday, Jan. 9, 1768:

"Two ladies were convicted before the Lord Mayor, in the penalty of 5l., for wearing chintz gowns."--_Gentleman's Magazine_, vol. xxxviii. p. 395.

Can any other instances be given?

INVESTIGATOR.

"_Noctes Ambrosianae._"--Can any one inform me why the celebrated "Noctes Ambrosianae" of Blackwood's _Magazine_ has never been printed in a separate form in this country (I understand it has been so in America)? I should think few republications would meet with a larger sale.

S. WMSON.

_B. Simmons._--Will you permit me to ask for a little information respecting B. Simmons? I believe he was born in the county of Cork: for he has sung, in most bewitching strains, his return to his native home on the banks of the Funcheon. He was the writer of that great poem on the "Disinterment of Napoleon," which appeared in _Blackwood_ some years ago. He was a regular {398} poetical contributor to its pages for many years. He held a situation in the Excise Office in London, and died there I believe in July, 1852.

What manner of man was he; young or old, married or single? Any information respecting such a child of genius and of song must be interesting to those who have ever read a line of his wondrous poems. To what other periodicals did he contribute?

ITH.

_Green Stockings._--Is the custom of sending a pair of green stockings to the eldest unmarried daughter of a family, upon the occasion of the marriage of a younger sister, of English, Irish, or Scottish origin?

L. A.

_Nicholas Kieten._--In the thirteenth century, "there was a giant in Holland named Nicholas Kieten, whose size was so prodigious, that he carried men under his arms like little children. His shoe was so large, that four men together could put their feet in it. Children were too terrified to look him in the face, and fled from his presence." So says our author; but he does not give the dimensions of Kieten. May not such a real giant, in the thirteenth century, have laid the foundation of the fabulous stories of giants that have for so many years been the favourite romances of the nursery? Kieten appears to be the type of the giants of our modern pantomimes. Will he serve as a key, to disclose the origin of these marvellous stories and captivating absurdities?

TIMON.

_Warwickshire Badge._--Will you permit me to ask, through your journal, if any of your readers can inform me whether the proper Warwickshire badge is "the antelope" or "the bear and ragged staff?" The former is borne by the 6th regiment of the line, they being the Royal First Warwickshire. The latter is borne by the 36th regiment of militia, they being the First Warwickshire. This latter badge is also borne by the retainers of the Earls of Warwick and Leicester; which latter county would seem to lay as much claim to the bear and ragged staff as Warwick does.

The county cannot well have both, or either; this makes me think that the bear and ragged staff is not a _county_ badge, but pertains more properly to the Earl of Warwick.

ANTIQUARY.

_Armorial._--Will any correspondent oblige me with the names to the following coats: 1. Arg., three hares (or conies) gu. 2. Arg., on a bend engrailed vert, between two bucks' heads cabossed sable, attired or, three besants; a canton erminois. 3. Quarterly, per fesse indented sable and or. 4. Per pale sable and or, a cheveron between three escallop shells, all counterchanged. 5. Gu., a lion rampant arg. Glover's _Ordinary of Arms_ would, I think, answer the above Query; and if any of your _numerous_ readers, who possess that valuable work, would refer to it in this case, they would be conferring a favour on your constant subscriber,

CID.

Would any correspondent help me to the solution of the following case?--A. was the _last_ and _only_ representative of an ancient family; he left at his decease, some years ago, a daughter and heiress who married B. Can the issue of B. (having no arms of their own) _legally_ use the arms, quarterings, crest, and motto of A., without a license from the Heralds' College?

CID.

_Lord Brougham and Horne Tooke._--In Lord Brougham's _Statesmen of the Time of George III._, he says of Mr. Horne Tooke:

"Thus he (H. T.) would hold that the law of libel was unjust and absurd, because _libel_ means a little book."

Can any of the readers of "N. & Q." say on what occasion Tooke maintained this strange doctrine, or where his Lordship obtained his information that Tooke did maintain it?

Q.

Bloomsbury.

_Rileys of Forest Hill._--Can any of your correspondents inform me relative to the arms and motto of the Rileys of (Forest Hill) Windsor, Berks, their descent, &c.?

J. M. R.

_Fish "Lavidian."_--In some ancient acts of parliament mention is made of a fish called "lavidian," and from the regulations made concerning it, it appears to have been of such small size as to be capable of being caught in the meshes of an ordinary net. But I cannot find that this name is contained in any of the books of natural history, written by such authors as Gesner or Rondeletius. Is it at this time a common name anywhere? Or can any of your readers assist in determining the species?

J. C.

"_Poeta nascitur, non fit._"--Can any of your correspondents inform me who is the author of the well-known saying--

"Poeta nascitur, non fit"?

I have more than once seen it quoted as from Horace, but I have never been able to find it in any classical author whose works I have examined. Cicero expresses a similar sentiment in his oration for the poet Archias, cap. viii.:

"Atqui sic a summis hominibus eruditissimisque accepimus, ceterarum rerum studia, et doctrina, et praeceptis, et arte constare: poetam natura ipsa valere, et mentis viribus excitari, et quasi divino quodam spiritu inflari."

J. P.

Boston, U.S.A.

{399}

_John Wesley and the Duke of Wellington._--It has always been understood that the property bequeathed to the Colleys, who in consequence took the surname of Wesley, afterwards altered to Wellesley, was offered to and declined by the father of John Wesley, who would not allow his son to accept the condition, a residence in Ireland, and the being adopted by the legatee. Has there been a relationship ever proved between the founder of the Methodists and the victor of Waterloo?

PRESTONIENSIS.

_Haviland_--Can any of your Plymouth correspondents give any information, as tombs, in memory of persons of the name of Haviland, Havilland, or De Havilland, existing in the churches of that place, of a date prior to A.D. 1688? Mention is made of such tombs as existing in a letter of that date in my possession. Also, in what chronicle or history of the Conquest of England, mention is made of a Sieur de Havilland, as having accompanied Duke William from Normandy on that occasion?

D. F. T.

_Byron._--Will you kindly inform me, through the medium of your "N. & Q.," whence the line "All went merry as a marriage bell" (in Byron's _Childe Harold_) is derived?

C. B.

"_Rutabaga._"--What is the etymology of the word _rutabaga_? I have heard one solution of it, but wish to ascertain whether there is any other. The word is extensively used in the United States for Swedish turnips or "Swedes."

LUCCUS.

_A Medal._--A family in this city possesses a silver medal granted to Joseph Swift, a native of Bucks county, Pennsylvania, by the University of Oxford or of Cambridge, of which the following is a description. It is about two inches in diameter; on the face are the head and bust of Queen Anne in profile, with an inscription setting forth her royal title, and on the reverse a full-length figure of Britannia, with ships sailing and men ploughing in the background, and this motto, "Compositis venerantur Annis." The date is MDCCXIII. An explanation of the object of the medal is desired.

OLDBUCK.

Philadelphia.

_The Black Cap._--Can any of your antiquarian legal readers inform me of the origin of the custom of the judges putting on a black cap when pronouncing sentence of death upon a criminal? I can find no illustration of this peculiar custom in Blackstone, Stephens, or other constitutional writers.

F. J. G.

_The Aboriginal Britons._--A friend of mine wants some information as to the history, condition, manners, &c. of the Britons, prior to the arrival of the Romans. What work, accessible to ordinary readers, supplies the best compendium of what is known on this subject? The fullest account of which I have, just now, any recollection, is contained in Milton's _History of England_, included in an edition of Milton's _Prose Works_, three vols. folio, Amsterdam, 1694. Is Milton's _History_ a work of any merit or authority?

H. MARTIN.

Halifax.

* * * * *

Minor Queries with Answers.

"_Gossip._"--This word, in its obsolete sense, according no doubt to its Saxon origin, means a sponsor, one who answers for a child in baptism, a godfather. Its modern acceptation all know to be widely different. Can any of your correspondents quote a passage or two from old English authors, wherein its obsolete sense is preserved?

N. L. J.

[The word occurs in Chaucer, _The Wyf of Bathes Prologue_, v. 5825.:

"And if I have a _gossib_, or a friend, (Withouten gilt) thou chidest as a frend, If that I walke or play into his hous."

And in Spenser, _Faerie Queene_, b. i. c. 12.:

"One mother, when as her foole-hardy child Did come too neare, and with his talons play, Halfe dead through feare, her little babe reuil'd, And to her _gossips_ gan in counsell say."

Master Richard Verstegan is more to the point:

"Our Christian ancestors, understanding a spiritual affinity to grow between the parents and such as undertooke for the child at baptisme, called each other by the name of _Godsib_, which is as much as to say, that they were _sib_ together, that is, _of kin_ together through God. And the child, in like manner, called such his God-fathers, or God-mothers."--_Restitution of Decayed Intelligence_, ch. vii.

A quotation or two from that delightful old _gossip_, Mr. Pepys, will show its use in the middle of the seventeenth century:

"Lord's Day. With my wife to church. At noon dined nobly, ourselves alone. After dinner, my wife and Mercer by coach to Greenwich, to be _gossip_ to Mrs. Daniel's child. My wife much pleased with the reception she had, and she was godmother, and did hold the child at the font, and it is called John."--_Diary_, May 20, 1666.

"Lord's Day. My wife and I to Mr. Martin's, where I find the company almost all come to the christening of Mrs. Martin's child, a girl. After sitting long, till the church was done, the parson comes, and then we to christen the child. I was godfather, and Mrs. Holder (her husband, a good man, I know well) and a pretty lady that waits, it seems, on my Lady Bath at Whitehall, her name Mrs. Noble, were godmothers. After the christening comes in the wine {400} and sweetmeats, and then to prate and tattle, and then very good company they were, and I among them. Here was Mrs. Burroughs and Mrs. Bales (the young widow whom I led home); and having staid till the moon was up, I took my pretty _gossip_ to Whitehall with us, and I saw her in her lodging."--_Ibid._, Dec. 2, 1666.]

_Humphry Repton._--To snatch from utter oblivion the once highly reputed Humphry, the king of landscape gardeners, to whom many of our baronial parks owe much of their picturesque beauty, and who, by the side of Sir Joseph Paxton, would now most duly have taken knightful station in these go-ahead days, I ask, in what publication was it, that in 1780, or thereabouts, being an indefatigable attendant at all exhibitions and sales of art, he, the said Humphry, was accustomed (as well able he was) to enlighten the public upon what was passing in matters of art now nearly three quarters of a century ago? Was it the _Bee_? Again, did he not, at his death, leave two large volumes for publication, entitled _Recollections of my Past Life_? Where are these?

INQUEST.

[The MS. collection of the late Humphry Repton, containing interesting details of his public and private life, has been used by Mr. Loudon in his biographical notice of Repton prefixed to the last edition of _The Landscape Gardening_, 8vo., 1840. Mr. Loudon states that 'these papers were left as a valued memorial for his children: it may be imagined, therefore, that they contain details of a private nature, which would be found devoid of interest to the world. Mr. Repton, indeed, possessed a mind as keenly alive to the ludicrous, as it was open to all that was excellent, in the variety of characters with whom his extensive professional connexions brought him acquainted; and he did not fail to observe and note down many curious circumstances and traits of character, in themselves highly amusing, but, for obvious reasons, unfit subjects for publication. Not one taint of satire or ill-nature, however, ever sullied the wit which flowed spontaneously from a mind sportive sometimes even to exuberance." His artistic critiques will be found in the following works: _The Bee_: or, a Critique on the Exhibition of Paintings at Somerset House, 1788, 8vo. _Variety_: a Collection of Essays, 1788, 12mo. _The Bee_: a Critique on the Shakspeare Gallery, 1789, 8vo. _Odd Whims_: being a republication of some papers in Variety, with a Comedy and other Poems, 2 vols. 12mo., 1804.]

"_Oriel._"--I should be glad if any of your correspondents could inform me of the origin of the term _oriel_, as applied to a window? It is not, I believe, necessarily to the East.

T. L. N.

Jamaica.

[_Oriol_, or _Oriel_, is a portico or court; also a small room near the hall in monasteries, where particular persons dined. (Blount's _Glossog._) Du Cange says, "_Oriolum_, porticus, atrium;" and quotes Matthew Paris for it. Supposed by some to be a diminutive from _area_ or _areola_. "In modern writings," says Nares, "we meet with mention of _Oriel_ windows. I doubt the propriety of the expression; but, if right, they must mean those windows that project like a porch, or small room. At St. Albans was an _oriel_, or apartment for persons not so sick as to retire to the infirmary. (Fosbroke's _Brit. Monachism_, vol. ii. p. 160.) I may be wrong in my notion of _oriel_ window, but I have not met with ancient authority for that expression. Cowel conjectured that _Oriel_ College, in Oxford, took its name from some such room or portico. There is a remarkable portico, in the farther side of the first quadrangle, but not old enough to have given the name. It might, however, be only the successor of one more ancient, and more exactly an _oriel_." For articles on the disputed derivation of this term, which seems involved in obscurity, see Parker's _Glossary of Architecture_; a curious paper by Mr. Hamper, in _Archaeologia_, vol. xxiii.; and _Gentleman's Magazine_ for Nov. 1823, p. 424., and March, 1824, p. 229.]

"_Orchard._"--Professor Martyn, in his Notes on Virgil's _Georgics_, seems to be of opinion that the English word "orchard" is derived from the Greek [Greek: orchatos], which Homer uses to express the garden of Alcinous; and he observes that Milton writes it _orchat_, thereby corroborating this impression. Is the word spelt according to Milton's form by any other writers?

N. L. J.

[It is spelt _orchat_ by J. Philips, _Cider_, book i.:

----"Else false hopes He cherishes, nor will his fruit expect Th' autumnal season, but in summer's pride, When other orchats smile, abortive fail."]

"_Peckwater._"--Why is the quadrangle at Christ Church, in Oxford, called "Peckwater?"

N. L. J.

[The Peckwater Quadrangle derives its name from an ancient hostle, or inn, which stood on the south-west corner of the present court; and was the property of Ralph, the son of Richard Peckwater, who gave it to St. Frideswide's Priory, 30th Henry III.; and about the middle of the reign of Henry VIII., another inn, called Vine Hall, was added to it; which, with other buildings, were reduced into a quadrangle in the time of Dean Duppa and Dr. Samuel Fell. The two inns were afterwards known by the name of Vine Hall, or Peckwater's Inn; and by this name were given to Christ Church, in 1547, by Henry VIII.]

_Richard III._--What became of the body after the battle of Bosworth Field? Was it buried at Leicester?

A. BRITON.

Athenaeum.

[After the battle of Bosworth Field, the body of Richard III. was stript, laid across a horse behind a pursuivant-at-arms, and conducted to Leicester, where, after it had been exposed for two days, it was buried with little ceremony in the church of the Grey Friars. In Burton's MS. of the History of Leicester, we read that, "within the town was a house of Franciscan or Grey Friars, built by Simon Montfort, Earl of {401} Leicester, whither (after Bosworth Field) the dead body of Richard III., naked, trussed behind a pursuivant-at-arms, all dashed with mire and blood, was there brought and homely buried; where afterward King Henry VII. (out of royal disposition) erected for him a fair alabaster monument, with his picture cut out, and made thereon."--Quoted in Nichols's _Leicestershire_, vol. i. p. 357.: see also pp. 298. 381.]

_Binding of old Books._--I shall feel obliged to any of your readers who will tell me how to polish up the covers of old books when the leather has got dry and cracked. Bookbinders use some composition made of glair, or white of egg, which produces a very glossy appearance. How is it made and used? and how do they polish the leather afterwards? Is there any little work on book-binding?

CPL.

[Take white of an egg, break it with a fork, and, having first cleaned the leather with dry flannel, apply the egg with a soft sponge. Where the leather is rubbed or decayed, rub a little paste with the finger into the parts affected, to fill up the broken grain, otherwise the glair would sink in and turn it black. To produce a polished surface, a hot iron must be rubbed over the leather. The following is, however, an easier, if not a better, method. Purchase some "bookbinders' varnish," which may be had at any colour shop; clean the leather well, as before; if necessary, use a little water in doing so, but rub quite dry with a flannel before varnishing; apply your varnish with wool, lint, or a very soft sponge, and place to dry.]

_Vessel of Paper._--When I was at school in the north of Ireland, not very many years ago, a piece of paper, about the octavo size, used for writing "exercises," was commonly known amongst us as a vessel of paper. Can any of your correspondents tell me the origin of the phrase; and whether it is in use in other localities?

ABHBA.