Part 2
"Meanwhile, Britain has been making strenuous efforts to stop the progress of this gigantic Napoleon; and every soldier that can be spared is sent away in the direction of the rising sun. But what can the British army do against such a host as the Russian autocrat has around him? Brave as the officers and men may be, what success or what renown can be gained in such an unequal conflict? In the critical emergency, the parent island sends a cry across the Atlantic, 'Come over and help us!' Swiftly is the sound borne over the waves, and soon an answering {560} echo is wafted back from the shores of Columbia. The cause is common, and the struggle must be common too. 'We are coming, brother John, we are coming,' is the noble reply; and, almost ere it is delivered, a fleet of gallant vessels is crossing the Pacific, with the stars and stripes gleaming on every mast. Another force is on its way from the far south, and soon the flower and strength of Anglo-Saxon race meet on the sacred soil of Palestine. The intelligence of their approach reaches the sacrilegious usurper, and he leads forth his army towards the mountains that rise in glory round about Jerusalem. The Jews within the city now arm themselves, and join the army that has come from the east and west, the north and south, for their protection: and thus these two mighty masses meet face to face, and prepare for the greatest _physical_ battle that ever was fought on this struggling earth. On the one side the motley millions of Russia, and the nations of Continental Europe, are drawn up on the slopes of the hills, and the sides of the valleys toward the north; while, on the other, are ranged the thousands of Britain and her offspring; from whose firm and regular ranks gleam forth the dark eyes of many of the sons of Abraham, determined to preserve their newly recovered city or perish, like their ancestors of a former age, in its ruins.
"All is ready. That awful pause, which takes place before the shock of battle, reigns around; but ere it is broken by the clash of meeting arms, and while yet the contending parties are at a little distance from each other, a strange sound is heard over head. The time for the visible manifestation of God's vengeance has arrived, his fury has come up in his face, and He calls for a sword against Gog throughout all the mountains. 'Tis this voice of the Lord that breaks the solemn stillness, and startles the assembled hosts. The scene that follows baffles description. Amid earthquakes and showers of fire, the bewildered and maddened armies of the autocrat rush, sword in hand, against each other, while the Israelites and their Anglo-Saxon friends gaze on the spectacle with amazement and consternation. It does not appear that they will even lift their hand against that foe which they had come so far to meet. Their aid is not necessary to accomplish the destruction of the image. The stone, cut without hands, shall fall on its feet and break them to pieces; and then shall the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, become like the chaff of the summer threshing-floor, and the wind shall carry them away. The various descriptions which we have of this battle, all intimate that God is the only foe that shall contend with the autocrat at Armageddon. John terms it, 'the battle of that great day of God Almighty;' and we believe the principal instrument of their defeat will be mutual slaughter. The carnage will be dreadful. Out of all the millions that came like a cloud upon the land of Israel, only a scattered and shattered remnant will return; the great mass will be left to 'cleanse the land,' and fill the valley of Hamongog with graves."
I refrain from quoting the remarks made by Napoleon, at St. Helena, respecting Russia, and the likelihood of her ultimately subjugating Western Europe, as your readers must be familiar with them from the writings of O'Meara and others.
HENRY H. BREEN.
St. Lucia.
* * * * *
DERIVATION OF THE WORD "BIGOT."
At p. 80. of Mr. Trench's admirable little volume _On the Study of Words_, an etymology is assigned to the word _bigot_, which is, I think, clearly erroneous:
"Two explanations of it are current," writes Mr. Trench, "one of which traces it up to the early Normans, while they yet retained their northern tongue, and to their often adjuration by the name of God; with sometimes a reference to a famous scene in French history, in which Rollo, Duke of Normandy, played a conspicuous part: the other puts it in connexion with _beguines_, called often in Latin _beguttæ_, a name by which certain communities of pietist women were known in the Middle Ages."
I agree with Mr. Trench in thinking, that neither of these derivations is the correct one. But I am obliged, quite as decidedly, to reject that which he proceeds to offer. He thinks that we owe--
"_Bigot_ rather to that profound impression which the Spaniards made upon all Europe in the fifteenth and the following century. Now the word _bigote_," he continues, "means in Spanish 'moustachio;' and as contrasted with the smooth, or nearly smooth, upper lip of most other people, at that time the Spaniards were the 'men of the moustachio'.... That they themselves connected firmness and resolution with the mustachio; that it was esteemed the outward symbol of these, it is plain from such phrases as 'pombre de bigote,' a man of resolution; 'tener bigotes,' to stand firm. But that in which they eminently displayed their firmness and resolution in those days was their adherence to whatever the Roman see imposed and taught. What then more natural, or more entirely according to the law of the generation of names, than that this striking and distinguishing outward feature of the Spaniard should have been laid hold of to express that character and condition of mind which eminently were his, and then transferred to all others who shared the same?"
Of this it must be admitted, that "se non e vero, e ben trovato." And the only reason for rejecting such an etymology is the existence of another with superior claims.
_Bigot_ is derived, as I think will be hardly doubted on consideration, from the Italian _bigio_, grey. Various religious confraternities, and especially a branch of the order of St. Francis which, from being parcel secular and parcel regular, was called "Terziari di S. Francesco," clothed themselves in grey; and from thence were called _Bigiocchi_ and _Bigiotti_. And from a very early period, the word was used in a bad sense. {561}
Menage, in his _Origini della Lingua Italiana_, under the word BIZOCO, writes:
"Persono secolare vestita di abito di religione. Quasi 'bigioco' perche ordinariamente gli Ipocriti, e coloro che si fanno dell' ordine di S. Francesco si vestono di bigio."
And Sansovino on the _Decameron_ says that--
"_Bizocco_ sia quasi _Bigioco_, o _Bigiotto_, perchè i Terziari di S. Francesco si veston di bigio."
Abundance of instances might be adduced of the use of the term _bizocco_ in the sense of hypocrite, or would-be saint. And the passage which Mr. Trench gives after Richardson from Bishop Hall, where _bigot_ is used to signify a pervert to Romanism, "he was turned both _bigot_ and physician," seems to me to favour my etymology rather than that from the Spanish; as showing that the earliest known use of the term was its application to a Popish religionist. The "pervert" alluded to had become that which cotemporary Italians were calling a _bigiotto_. Must we not conclude that Bishop Hall drew his newly-coined word thence?
T. A. T.
Florence.
* * * * *
"BOOK OF ALMANACS."
When I published this work, I knew of no predecessor except Francoeur, as noted in the preface; but another has been recently pointed out to me. There was a work compiled for the use of the Dominicans, entitled _Kalendarium Perpetuum juxta ritum Sacri ordinis prædicatorum, s. p. n. Dominici_. The copy now before me, Rome, 1612, 8vo., is said to be "tertio emendatum," which probably signifies the fourth edition. It contains the thirty-five almanacs, with rules for determining epacts and dominical letters from A.D. 1600 to 2100, and a table for choosing the almanac when the epact and letter are known.
This work must have been compiled before the reformation of the calendar. A note in explanation of the thirty-fifth almanac, contains the statement that A.D. 1736 belongs to that calendar, and to the letters D.C. This is true of the old style, and not of the new.
It seems, then, that _Books of Almanacs_ are older than the Gregorian reformation: that they may have been completely forgotten, may be inferred from my book never having produced any mention of them either in your pages or elsewhere. Perhaps some older instances may be yet produced.
A. DE MORGAN.
* * * * *
Minor Notes.
_Distances at which Sounds have been heard._--The story of St. Paul's clock striking being heard by a sentry at Windsor is well known, and I believe authentic. Let me add the following:--The Rev. Hugh Salvin (who died vicar of Alston, Cumberland, Sept. 28, 1852) mentions an equally remarkable instance whilst he was chaplain on board H.M.S. "Cambridge," on the coast of South America:
"Our salutes at Chancay were heard at Callao, though the distance is thirty-five miles, and several projecting headlands intervene, and the wind always blows northward. The lieutenant of the Arab store-ship, to whom the circumstance was mentioned, observed, that upon one occasion the evening gun at Plymouth was heard at Ilfracomb, which is sixty miles off, and a mountainous country intervenes."--_Journal of the Rev. H. S. Salvin_, p. 64., 12mo.: Newcastle-on-Tyne, 1829.
BALLIOLENSIS.
_Anagram._--The accompanying anagram I saw, some weeks back, in a country paper; perhaps you will give it a local habitation in "N. & Q." It is said to be by a president of one of the committees of the arrondissement of Valenciennes:
"A sa majesté impériale Le Szar Nicholas, souverain et autocrate de toutes les Russies."
"Oho! ta vanité sera ta perte; elle isole la Russie; tes successeurs te maudiront à jamais."
PHILIP STRANGE.
_Logan or Rocking Stones._--The following extract from Sir C. Anderson's _Eight Weeks' Journal in Norway, &c. in 1852_, under July 21, may interest your Devonshire and Cornish readers:
"Mr. De C----k, a most intelligent Danish gentleman, told me, that when a proprietor near Drammen, was at Bjornholm Island, in the Baltic, he was told there were stones which made a humming noise when pushed, and on examination they proved to be rocking-stones; on his return, he found on his own property several large stones, which, on removing the earth around them, were so balanced as to be moveable. If this be an accurate statement, it tends to strengthen the notion that stones, laid upon each other by natural causes, have, by application of a little labour, been made to move, as the stones at Brimham Craggs in Yorkshire; and this seems more likely than that such immense masses should have been ever raised by mechanical force and poised."
BALLIOLENSIS.
* * * * *
Queries.
A RUBENS QUERY.
There is a somewhat curious mystery with regard to certain works of the immortal Rubens, which some of your readers, who are connoisseurs in art, may possibly assist to dispel. Lommeline, who engraved the finest works of Rubens, has left a print of "The Judgment of Paris," which {562} differs in several points from the subject of "The Decision of Paris," now in the National Gallery. For instance, in the one, Paris rests the apple upon his knee, and in the other he is offering it to the fair goddess of Beauty. This print has also _five_ more figures than there are in the Gallery painting. Now, two questions arise hereon: first, what has become of the original painting from which this print was taken? and secondly, where is the line engraving of the picture now in the National Gallery?
J. J. S.
Downshire Hill, Hampstead.
* * * * *
THE PAXS PENNIES OF WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.
Perhaps some of your numerous readers may be able to satisfy me on a subject which has for a long time troubled me.
All coin collectors are aware that there are many different reverses to the pennies of William I. One is commonly called the _pax_-type: and _why_, is the question.
On the obverse, it is "PILLM REX," or sometimes differently spelt; but "P" always stands for "W," and pronounced so.
On the reverse, it is P [=A] X S (each letter being encircled), but the "P" is here pronounced "P;" this is in the centre compartment: surrounding it is the moneyer's name, with place where the coin was struck--"EDPI (Edwi) ON LVND," "GODPINE (Godwine) ON LVND," &c. It is very inconsistent that letters should be pronounced differently on the same coin.
I am rather of opinion that we have not arrived at the right reading, and that _pax_ has nothing to do with it. It is PAXS, AXSP, XSPA, or SPAX: for I find, on comparing nineteen different coins, the letters stand in different positions compared with the cross, which denotes the beginning of the inscription around them; so no one can tell which letter of the four in the circles near the large cross should come first. Besides, what does the "S" stand for, after you get the "PAX?"
I am not a member of the Antiquarian Society, but have asked gentlemen belonging to it to explain this puzzle (to me), without success. I now ask them and others, through your pages, to give a solution of the difficulty.
W. M. F.
* * * * *
Minor Queries.
_Peculiar Customs at Preston, in Lancashire._--I wish to know if it be true that the use of _mourning_ is nearly, if not altogether, discountenanced at the above town, even for the loss of the nearest and dearest friends; and that a widow's cap is only worn by those to whom another husband would be particularly acceptable? If these, and other peculiar customs prevail, I wish some correspondent from Lancashire would kindly enlighten the readers of "N. & Q." with respect to them.
ANON.
_Obsolete Statutes._--There was published, in the pamphlet form (pp. 61.), in 1738, a capital piece of _irony_ under the title of--
"A Letter to a Member of Parliament, containing a Proposal for bringing in a Bill to revise, amend, or repeal certain Obsolete Statutes, commonly called 'The Ten Commandments.' 4th Edition."
As this will doubtless be known to some of your readers, may I ask the name of the author, and the occasion of its publication?
J. O.
_Sale of Offices and Salaries in the Seventeenth Century._--Has the subject of the sale of offices in former times ever been investigated? In the reign of Charles II., a new secretary of state, lord chamberlain, &c., always paid a large sum of money to his predecessor, the king often helping to find the required sum. Was this the case with all offices? I do not think the lord chancellorship was ever paid for. When and how did the practice originate, and when and how fall into disuse? Has the subject of salaries of offices (including fees) in these times ever been accurately investigated? What were the emoluments of the lord chancellor, chancellor of the exchequer, and president of the council, in the reign of Charles?
C. H.
_Board of Trade._--A council for trade was appointed during the recess of the Convention Parliament after the Restoration. Are the names of that council anywhere published? Did this council continue to exist till the appointment (I think in 1670) of the Council of Trade, of which Lord Sandwich was made president?
C. H.
_Sacheverell's and Charles Lamb's Residences in the Temple._--In which house in Crown Office Row, Temple, was Charles Lamb born? and which were the chambers occupied by Dr. Sacheverell, also in the Temple, at the time of the riots caused by his admirers?
AN ADMIRER OF YOUR PUBLICATION.
_Braddock and Orme._--Can you, or any of your correspondents, furnish me (in reply to an inquiry made of me by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania) with any information about the families of Braddock and Orme, in relation to General Braddock, who commanded and was killed at the battle of the Monongahela river; and to Orme, who, with Washington and Morris, were his aides-de-camp in the melancholy and fatal engagement.
F. O. MORRIS.
Nunburnholme Rectory, York.
{563}
* * * * *
Minor Queries with Answers.
_Cromwell's Bible._--I have seen it stated that an edition of the Bible, "printed by John Field, one of his Highness's Printers, 1658," in 12mo., London, was printed by order of Cromwell for distribution to his soldiers. Can any of your correspondents furnish authority for such tradition? It is one of the most incorrectly printed books which I ever met with. In Cotton's list I do not find this edition: he has one in 8vo., 1657, Cambridge, J. Field.
W. C. TREVELYAN.
[George Offor, Esq., of Hackney, has kindly favoured us with a reply to this and the following Query: "Eighteen different editions of the Bible, printed by John Field, are in my collection, published between the years 1648 and 1666. In some of these he is described as printer to the University of Cambridge, in others as 'One of His Highness's Printers;' but in those which _tradition_ says were published for the army, he is called 'Printer to the Parliament.' They are all as correctly printed as Bibles were generally published during that time, excepting that by Giles Calvert the Quaker, published in 1653, which is singularly correct and beautiful. Field's editions being remarkable for beauty of typography and smallness, have been much examined, and many errors detected. That of 1653 is the most beautiful and called genuine, and is the copy said to have been printed for the use of the army and navy. Of this I have five different editions, all agreeing in the error in Matthew, ch. vi. v. 24., 'Ye cannot serve and mammon;' and in having the first four psalms on one page. But in some the following errors are corrected, 1 Cor. vi. v. 9., 'The unrighteous shall inherit the kingdom of God;' Rom. ch. vi. v. 13., 'Neither yield ye your members as instruments of righteousness unto sin.' The copy of 1658, which SIR. W. C. TREVELYAN describes, is a counterfeit of the genuine edition of 1653, vulgarly called 'The Bastard Field's Bible.' These were reprinted many times. I possess four different editions of it, so exactly alike in form and appearance, that the variations throughout can only be detected by placing them in juxtaposition. They are all neatly printed, without a black line between the columns, and make thicker volumes than the genuine edition. I have never been able to verify the tradition that the Field's Bible, 1653, was printed for the army by order of Cromwell. It is the only one, as far as I can discover, 'Printed by John Field, Printer to the Parliament.' I received the tradition from my father nearly sixty years ago, and have no doubt but that it is founded in fact. It is an inquiry well worthy of investigation.--G. OFFOR."]
_Canne's Bible._--What is the value of a good copy of Canne's Bible, printed at Edinburgh by John Kincaid, 1756?
SIGMA.
["Canne's Bibles were first printed at Amsterdam, 1647, 1662, and 1664; in London, 1682, 1684, 1698: these are all pocket volumes. Then again in Amsterdam, 4to., 1700. At Edinburgh by Watkins in 1747, and by Kincaid in 1766; after which there followed editions very coarsely and incorrectly printed. They are all, excepting that of 1647, in my collection. Kincaid's, 1766, 2 vols. nonpareil, in beautiful condition, bound in green morocco, cost me five shillings. That of 1747, by Watkins, not in such fine condition, two shillings. SIGMA can readily imagine the value of Kincaid's edition 1756, by comparison with those of 1747 and 1766. If any of your readers could assist me to procure the first edition, 1647, I should be greatly obliged.--G. OFFOR."]
_Dryden and Luke Milbourne._--Among the "Quarrels of Authors," I do not find that between _glorious John_ and this reverend gentleman. In a poetical paraphrase of _The Christian's Pattern_, by the latter (8vo., 1697), he shows unmistakeable evidence of having been lately skinned by the _witty tribe_, which I take to mean Dryden and his _atheistical crew_. I am aware that Milbourne invited the attack by his flippant remarks upon the English Virgil, but I know not in which piece of Dryden's to look for it.
J. O.
[Dryden's attack on Milbourne occurs in his preface to the Fables (Scott's edition of his _Works_, vol. xi. p. 235.). "As a corollary to this preface," says Dryden, "in which I have done justice to others, I owe somewhat to myself; not that I think it worth my time to enter the lists with one Milbourne and one Blackmore, but barely to take notice that such men there are, who have written scurrilously against me without any provocation. Milbourne, who is in orders, pretends, amongst the rest, this quarrel to me, that I have fallen foul on priesthood; if I have, I am only to ask pardon of good priests, and am afraid his part of the reparation will come to little. Let him be satisfied that he shall not be able to force himself upon me for an adversary. I contemn him too much to enter into competition with him." A little lower down Dryden hints that Milbourne lost his living for writing a libel upon his parishioners.]
_Portrait Painters of the last Century._--I am anxious to obtain some information respecting the portrait painters of the last century. I have in my collection a picture by H. Smith, 1736. Can any of your readers give me an account of him?
DURANDUS.
[A biographical list, alphabetically arranged, of portrait painters, is given in Hobbes's _Picture Collector's Manual; being a Dictionary of Painters_, vol. ii. pp. 467-515., edit. 1849; a useful work of the kind. The name of H. Smith is not noticed.]
_Ætna._--To whom can the following passage refer?
"We found a good inn here (Catania), kept by one Caca Sangue, a name that sounds better in Italian than it would in English. This fellow is extremely pleasant and communicative, and among other things he told us that Mr. ----, who has published such a minute description of his journey to the crater of Ætna, was never there, but sick in Catania when his {564} party ascended, he having been their guide."--_Travels through Switzerland, Italy, Sicily, &c._, vol. ii. p. 21., by Thomas Watkins, A.M., F.R.S., in the years 1787, 1788, 1789; 2 vols. 8vo., 2nd edition, London, 1794.
ANON.
[The reference is probably to M. D'Orville, whose minute description of his journey up Mount Ætna was copied into the _Gentleman's Magazine_, vol. xxxiv. p. 281., extracted from D'Orville's work, entitled _Sicula, or the History and Antiquities of the Island of Sicily, &c._, 2 vols. folio, Amsterdam.]
_Sir Adam, or Sir Ambrose, Brown._--This friend of Evelyn, who lived at Betchworth Park, is sometimes called Sir Adam, and sometimes Sir Ambrose, in Evelyn's _Memoirs_. Is not Sir Adam the correct name?
C. H.
[The entries in Evelyn's _Diary_ seem to be correct. Sir Ambrose Brown, obit. 1661, was the father of Sir Adam, obit. 1690. See the pedigree in Manning and Bray's _Surrey_, vol. i. p. 560.]