Notes and Queries, Number 240, June 3, 1854 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.

Part 4

Chapter 43,446 wordsPublic domain

"The disclosure recently made by Colonel Tallmadge in the House of Representatives, relative to the capture of Major André, seems to have been received in every instance with the confidence to which it was certainly entitled. That gentleman related what he saw and knew; and those who are attempting to dispute him, relate only what they had been informed of. To those of our readers who may not have seen the report of Colonel Tallmadge's remarks, it may be proper to observe, that those three men who captured Major André, applied to Congress for an increase of pension settled on them by the government, and that when this application was under consideration, Colonel Tallmadge (a member for Connecticut) rose and stated, that having been the officer to whom the care of André was entrusted, he had heard André declare that those men robbed him, and upon his offer to reward them for taking him to the British lines, he believes they declined only from the impossibility of giving them sufficient security, &c., and that it was not patriotism but the hope of gain which induced them to deliver him to the Americans. To this declaration of Colonel Tallmadge, and in support of his opinion, we are happy to have it in our power to offer the following corroborating testimony.

"There is now living in this town a gentleman who was an officer in the Massachusets line, and who was particularly conversant in all the circumstances of that transaction. It was this gentleman who, in company with Captain Hughes, composed the special guard of André's person, was with him during the last twenty-four hours of his life, and supported him to the place of execution. From him we have received the following particulars: it is needless to say we give them our implicit belief, since to those who are acquainted with the person to whom we allude, no other testimony is ever necessary than his simple declaration.

"To this gentleman André himself related that he was passing down a hill, at the foot of which, under a tree, playing cards, were the three men who took him. {521} They were close by the road side, and he had approached very near them before either party discovered the other; upon seeing him they instantly rose and seized their rifles. They approached him and demanded who he was; he immediately answered that he was a British officer, supposing, from their being so near the British lines, that they belonged to that party. They then seized him, robbed him of the few guineas which he had with him, and the two watches which he then wore, one of gold and the other of silver. He offered to reward them if they would take him to New York; they hesitated, and in his (André's) opinion, the reason why they did not do so, was the impossibility on his part to secure to them the performance of the promise.

"He informs also that it was an opinion too prevalent to admit of any doubt, that these men were of that description of persons called 'cow boys,' or those who, without being considered as belonging to either party, made it a business to pillage from both. He has frequently heard this opinion expressed at that time by several officers who were personally acquainted with all these men, and who could not have been mistaken in their general characters.

"André frequently spoke of the kindness of the American officers, and particularly of the attention of Major Tallmadge; and on the way to the place of execution sent for that officer to come near him, that he might learn the manner in which he was to die."

Statement of Van Wart (from the _National Intelligencer_ of Feb. 25, 1817):

"Isaac Van Wart, of the town of Mount Pleasant, in the county of Westchester, being duly sworn, doth depose and say, that he is one of the three persons who arrested Major André during the American revolutionary war, and conducted him to the American camp. That he, this deponent, together with David Williams and John Paulding, had secreted themselves at the side of the highway, for the purpose of detecting any person coming from, or having unlawful intercourse with, the enemy, being between the two armies; a service not uncommon in those times. That this deponent and his companions were armed with muskets, and upon seeing Major André approach the place where they were concealed, they rose and presented their muskets at him, and required him to stop, which he did. He then asked them whether they belonged to his party, and then they asked him which was his party? to which he replied the lower party. Upon which they, deeming a little stratagem under such circumstances not only justifiable but necessary, gave him to understand that they were of his party, upon which he joyfully declared himself to be a British officer, and told them that he had been out upon very particular business. Having ascertained thus much, this deponent and his companions undeceived him as to their characters, declaring themselves to be Americans, and that he must consider himself their prisoner. Upon this, with seeming unconcern, he said he had a pass from General Arnold, which he exhibited, and then insisted on their permitting him to proceed. But they told him that, as he had confessed himself to be a British officer, they deemed it to be their duty to convey him to the American camp; and then took him into a wood, a short distance from the highway, in order to guard against being surprised by parties of the enemy, who were frequently reconnoitering in that neighbourhood. That when they had him in the wood they proceeded to search him, for the purpose of ascertaining who and what he was, and found inside of his stockings and boots, next to his bare feet, papers which satisfied them he was a spy. Major André now showed them his gold watch, and remarked that it was evidence of his being a gentleman, and also promised to make them any reward they might name, if they would but permit him to proceed, which they refused. He then told them that if they doubted the fulfilment of his promise, they might conceal him in some secret place, and keep him there until they could send to New York and receive their reward. And this deponent expressly declares, that every offer made by Major André to them was promptly and resolutely refused. And, for himself, he solemnly declares that he had not, and he does most sincerely believe that Paulding and Williams had not, any intention of plundering their prisoner; nor did they confer with each other, or even hesitate whether they should accept his promise, but, on the contrary, they were, in the opinion of this deponent, governed, like himself, by a deep interest in the cause of the country, and a strong sense of duty. And this deponent further says that he never visited the British camp, nor does he believe or suspect that either Paulding or Williams ever did, except that Paulding was, once before André's capture, and once afterwards, made a prisoner by the British, as this deponent has been informed and believes. And this deponent, for himself, expressly denies that he ever held any unlawful traffic or any intercourse whatever with the enemy. And, appealing solemnly to that omniscient Being, at whose tribunal he must soon appear, he doth expressly declare that all accusations, charging him therewith, are utterly untrue.

ISAAC VAN WART.

"Sworn this 28th day of January, 1817, before Jacob Radcliff.

"We the subscribers, inhabitants of the county of Westchester, do certify that during the revolutionary war we were well acquainted with Isaac Van Wart, David Williams, and John Paulding, who arrested Major André; and that at no time during the revolutionary war was any suspicion ever entertained by their neighbours or acquaintances, that they, or either of them, held any undue intercourse with the enemy. On the contrary, they were universally esteemed, and taken to be ardent and faithful in the cause of the country. We further certify that the said Paulding and Williams are not now resident among us, but that Isaac Van Wart is a respectable freeholder of the town of Mount Pleasant, that we are all well acquainted with him, and we do not hesitate to declare our belief that there is not an individual in the county of Westchester, acquainted with Isaac Van Wart, who would hesitate to describe him as a man of a sober, moral, industrious, and religious life, as a man whose integrity is as unimpeachable as his veracity is undoubted. In {522} these respects no man in the county of Westchester is his superior.

Jonathan G. Tompkins, aged 81 years. Jacob Purdy, 77. John Odell, 60. John Boyce, 72. J. Requa, 59. William Paulding, 81. John Requa, 54. Archer Read, 64. George Comb, 72. Gilbert Dean, 70. Jonathan Odell, 87. Cornelius Van Tassel, 71. Thomas Boyce, 71. Tunis Lint, 71. Jacobus Dyckman, 68. William Hammond. John Romer."

F. D.

The following works furnish much that is interesting concerning Major André:--

_An Authentic Narrative of the Causes which led to the Death of Major André_, by Joshua Hett Smith, London, 1808. Printed for Matthews and Leigh, 18. Strand.

_The Plot of Arnold and Sir Henry Clinton against the United States, and against General Washington_, Paris, 1816. Printed by Didot the Elder.

Niles' _Weekly Register for 1817_, vol. ii. p. 386. Printed at Baltimore.

ANON.

* * * * *

THE TERMINATIONS "-BY" AND "-NESS."

The linguistic origin of these descriptive syllables, when found as suffixes to the names of places, is a question of some interest to the antiquary and ethnologist; and, as to the former of them, has, on that account, fitly enough been made the subject of occasional discussion in the pages of "N. & Q." The _-by_, as your pages evince (Vol. vii., p. 536.), is implicitly relied upon by Mr. Worsaae and his disciples, in support of the Danish theory of that eminent northern scholar; and that too, as it appears, without any very minute regard to the etymology and meaning of the former syllabic divisions of proper names so characterised. If only the designation of a locality end with _-by_, evidence sufficient is given, that it owes its paternity specially to the Danes alone, of all the Scandinavian tribes who obtained a permanent footing on our shores. The same is the case with respect to the termination _-ness_, and its orthographic varieties. As with the Ashbys, Newbys, and Kirbys of our several counties, so (_inter alia_) with the Hackness of Yorkshire, the Longness of Man, the Bowness of Westmoreland, and the Foulness of Essex. All have the Danish mark upon them; and all, therefore, possess a Danish original, and bear witness of a Danish location.

With regard to the _-by_, I have already, in these pages, taken occasion to suggest a doubt whether, in that particular instance, the Worsaaen theory be not as fallacious as it is dogmatical. And, adopting the same method with the _-ness_, I think it will be evident, on examination of the following list of almost identical forms of the expression, that, as to this point also, no argument can be founded upon it, one way or the other, beyond the fact of its derivation from some of the Scandinavian tribes who, in the fifth and succeeding centuries, established themselves on our shores: if, indeed, I do not, even with this enlarged extension, assign to the presence of the term in our topography a too restricted application.

I have a list now before me of 521 places with this suffix, distributed over twenty-five counties. It does not pretend to be complete; but as it offers a more extended view of the question than in Vol. ix., p. 136., I subjoin the results:

Yorkshire 173 Lincolnshire 163 Leicestershire 49 Norfolk 22 Cumberland 21 Westmoreland 18 Northamptonshire 17 Lancashire 14 Nottinghamshire 14 Suffolk and Derbyshire, 5 each 10 Durham and Warwickshire, 3 each 6 Essex and Isle of Man, 2 each 4 Cardiganshire, Cheshire, Cornwall, Kent, Monmouthshire, Northumberland, Pembrokeshire, Salop, and Wiltshire, 1 each 10 --- 521 ===

Our termination _-ness_, then, is the old northern or Icelandic _nes_, the parent of the Dan. _næs_, and the Ang.-Sax. _nese_ and _næs_, signifying "a neck of land, or promontory." From this _nes_ came, naturally enough, the old northern _naos_ or _nös_, whence the Dan. _næse_, the Germ. _nase_; the Ang.-Sax. _nase_, _næse_, _nose_; the Norman-Fr. _naz_, and Su.-Goth. _naese_ (in Al. and Sansc. _nasa_, and in Gall. _nes_); the Latin _nasus_, and Eng. _nose_, or _nase_ as it is spelt by Gower in his _Conf. Am._ b. v., "Both at mouth and at _nase_." Closely akin to the same word, and probably derived from an identical source, is the old northern _nef_, whence were formed the Vulg.-Isl. _nebbi_, the Dan. _neb_, and the Ang.-Sax. _nebbe_ and _neb_ (in Pers. _anef_; in C. Tscherh. _ep_, in Curd. _defin_), the beak or bill, the _neb_ or _nib_ of a bird; and also used of the prominent feature of the human face divine, to which the term is applied by Shakspeare and Bacon, as it is occasionally at the present day by the older inhabitants of the Yorkshire dales.

Thus have we the origin of our _nase_, _-nese_, _-ness_, _-nib_, _-nab_, &c., which are found in the composition of many of our local proper names; but, after looking over the foregoing paragraph, who can tell whether these forms were transported to our shores in a Saxon, Jutish, Anglic, or Danish bark?

WM. MATTHEWS.

Cowgill.

{523}

_The Termination "-by."_--Having gone over the remaining letters H to Z, I send you the following results:

Lincoln 94, in former list 65 Total 159 York 41 " " 24 " 65 Leicester 22 " " 21 " 43 Norfolk 13 " " 6 " 19 Notts 9 " " 2 " 11 Cumberland 9 " " 7 " 16 Lancaster 6 " " 2 " 8 Westmoreland 5 " " 3 " 8 Warwick 3 " " 0 " 3 Northampton 3 " " 9 " 12 Suffolk 3 " " 0 " 3 Essex (Kirby-le-Soken) 1 " " 0 " 1 Chester (West Kirby or Kirkby) 1 " " 0 " 1 Pembroke (Tenby) 1 " " 0 " 1 --- 211 === Derby 2 " 2 Sussex 1 " 1 --- --- 142 353 === ===

I leave this for the study of others.

B. H. C.

As B. H. C. could only find seven places in Cumberland ending in _-by_, I take the liberty of sending him a few additional names. Writing from memory, I may very possibly have omitted many more:

Many names of places in Cumberland commence with _Cum_, as our Cumbrian bard has it:

"We've Cumwhitton, Cumwhinton, Cumranton, Cumrangen, Cumrew, and Cumcatch; Wi' mony mair Cums i' the county, But nane wi' Cumdivock can match."

From whence is derived the prefix _Cum_?

JOHN O' THE FORD.

Malta.

* * * * *

NEWSPAPER FOLK LORE.

(Vol. vi., pp. 221. 338. 466.; Vol. ix., pp. 29. 84. 276)

Is it quite certain that "no animal can live in the alimentary canal but the parasites which belong to that part of the animal economy?" Being ignorant of the matter I give no opinion, but would bring before your readers' notice the following seemingly well-authenticated instance. I quote from _Insect Transformations_, 1830, p. 239., a work put forth by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.

"That insects are, in some rare cases, introduced into the human stomach, has been more than once proved, though the greater number of the accounts of such facts in medical books are too inaccurate to be trusted.[3] But one extraordinary case has been completely authenticated, both by medical men and competent naturalists, and is published in the _Dublin Transactions_, by Dr. Pickells of Cork.[4] Mary Riordan, aged twenty-eight, had been much affected by the death of her mother, and at one of her many visits to the grave seems to have partially lost her senses, having been found lying there on the morning of a winter's day, and having been exposed to heavy rain during the night. When she was about fifteen, two popular Catholic priests had died, and she was told by some old women that if she would drink daily, for a certain time, a quantity of water mixed with clay taken from their graves, she would be for ever secure from disease and sin. Following this absurd and disgusting prescription, she took from time to time large quantities of the draught; some time afterwards, being affected with a burning pain in the stomach (cardialgia), she began to eat large pieces of chalk, which she sometimes also mixed with water and drank.

"Now, whether in any or in all these draughts she swallowed the eggs of insects, cannot be affirmed; but for several years she continued to throw up incredible numbers of grubs and maggots, chiefly of the churchyard beetle (_Blaps mortisaga_). 'Of the larvæ of the beetle,' says Dr. Pickells, 'I am sure I considerably underrate, when I say that not less than 700 have been thrown up from the stomach at different times since the commencement of my attendance. A great proportion were destroyed by herself to avoid publicity; many, too, escaped immediately by running into holes in the floor. Upwards of ninety were submitted to Dr. Thomson's examination; nearly all of which, including two of the specimens of the meal-worm (_Tenebrio molitor_), I saw myself thrown up at different times. The average size was about an inch and a half in length, and four lines and a half in girth. The larvæe of the dipterous insect, though voided only about seven or eight times, according to her account, came up almost literally in myriads. They were alive and moving.' Altogether, Dr. Pickells saw nearly 2,000 grubs of the beetle, and there were {524} many which he did not see. Mr. Clear, an intelligent entomologist of Cork, kept some of them alive for more than twelve months. Mr. S. Cooper cannot understand whence the continued supply of the grubs was provided, seeing that larvæ do not propagate, and that only one pupa and one perfect insect were voided[5]; but the simple fact, that most beetles live several years in the state of larvæ, sufficiently accounts for this. Their existing and thriving in the stomach, too, will appear the less wonderful from the fact that it is exceedingly difficult to kill this insect; for Mr. Henry Baker repeatedly plunged one into spirits of wine, so fatal to most insects, but it revived, even after being immersed a whole night, and afterwards lived three years.[6]

"That there was no deception on the part of the woman, is proved by the fact that she was always anxious to conceal the circumstance; and that it was only by accident that the medical gentlemen, Drs. Pickells, Herrick, and Thomson, discovered it. Moreover, it does not appear that, though poor, she ever took advantage of it to extort money. It is interesting to learn that, by means of turpentine in large doses, she was at length cured."

EDWARD PEACOCK.

Bottesford Moors, Kirton-in-Lindsey.

[Footnote 2: In the _Bibliotheca Grenvilliana_ the tract _De Apostasia_ is not included, although the compilers say, "The present is a _complete Collection of his Tracts_, including the folding sheet."]

[Footnote 3: See Good's _Nosologia_, _Helminthia Alvi_, and _Study of Medicine_, vol. i. p. 336.]

[Footnote 4: _Trans. of Assoc. Phys. in Ireland_, vols. iv. viii. and v. p. 177. 8vo: Dublin, 1824-1828.]

[Footnote 5: Cooper's edition of Good's _Study of Medicine_, vol. i. p. 358.]

[Footnote 6: _Philosophical Transactions_, No. 457.]

* * * * *

VENTILATION.

(Vol. ix., p. 415.)

"Airs from heaven or blasts from hell."

The mistake which, it is very respectfully submitted, the professed ventilationists fall into, and which may be considered the _fons et origo malorum_, is the notion that foul air rises upwards, and that pure air comes from below; which is just the reverse of the fact.

In any room containing animals or vegetables, the air undergoes a change by respiration.

Leaving the vegetables to care for themselves, and considering the animals, if such a title may be reverently given to members of the House and others shut up in confined apartments for the benefit of their species, it is obvious that the pure air of heaven must undergo a change by the respiratory organs of the members, which change is absolutely necessary to preserve their lives, and each such apartment is a manufactory for converting pure into foul air. Its steam-power is seated in the lungs, which, at each inspiration, take up the oxygen (the principle of life and flame) of the air, and at each expiration give out the carbon of the blood, conveyed by the veins from all parts of the body as refuse, and when purged therefrom by oxygen inspired, convert the venous blood into arterial, and bring life out of death.