Chapter 3

The use of this term in the denunciation against Jehoiakim, more than six centuries B.C., and the previous enumeration of crimes in the 22nd chapter of Jeremiah, would seem sufficiently to account for its origin and use in regard to the disposal of the dead bodies of excommunicated or notorious malefactors, by the earliest Christian writers or judges. The Hebrew name of the ass, says Parkhurst, is "derived from its turbulence when excited by lust or rage;" and the animal was also made the symbol of slothful or inglorious ease, in the case of Issachar, B.C. 1609: Genesis, xlix. 14. It is thus probable some reference to such characteristics of the brute and the criminal, rather than any mere general allusion to throwing the dead bodies of inferior or unclean animals (of which the dog was a more common type) under any rubbish beyond the precincts of the city, may have been intended, by specifying this animal in prescribing an ignominious sepulture.

LAMBA.

It can hardly have escaped the notice of your Querist (although the instance is not one adduced by Ducange), that the phrase, "burial of an ass" #Kevurat Chamor# for "no burial at all," is as old as the time of the prophet Jeremiah. (Vide chap. xxii. 19.) The _custom_ referred to being of religious origin, might lead us to the sacred books for the origin of the _phrase_ denoting it; and it seems natural for the Christian writers, in any mention of those whose bodies, like that of Jehoiakim, were for their sins deprived of the rites of sepulture, to use the striking phrase already provided for them in Scripture; and as natural for that phrase to continue in use even after the somewhat more civilised custom of "imblocation" had deprived it of its original reference to "the dead body's being cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost." (Jer. xxxvi. 30.)

J. EASTWOOD.

This phrase is, I think, accounted for by the ass being deprived of interment in consequence of the uses made of its dead carcass. After a description of the adaptation of his bones to instrumental music, Aldrovandus continues as follows:--

"De corio notissimum, post obitum, ne quid asini unquam {42} _conquiescat_, foraminibus delacerari, indeque factis cribris, assiduae inservire agitationi; unde dicebat Apuleius: cedentes hinc inde miserum corium, nec cribris jam idoneum relinquunt. Sed et Albertus pollicetur asinorum corium non solum utile esse ad soleas calceorum faciendas, sed etiam quae ex illa parte fiunt, in qua onera fuerunt, non consumi, etsi ille qui utitur, eis continuo peregrinando in lapidibus portaverit, et tandem ita indurare ut pedes sustinere nequeant."--_De Quadruped._, p. 351.

T. J.

* * * * *

POPE FELIX.

Four Popes of the name have filled the chair of St. Peter.

The first suffered martyrdom under Aurelian. He is honoured with a festival at Rome on the 29th May.

The second also received the crown of martyrdom, under Constantine. His festival is kept on the 29th July.

The third is commemorated as a holy confessor on the 25th February. He was a collateral ancestor of Pope St. Gregory the Great, who mentions him in his writings.

Gregory had three aunts by the father's side, who all became nuns. One of them, Tarsilla, a lady of pious and beatified life, and of very advanced age, had one night a vision of Pope Felix, who was then dead. He seemed to point towards the mansions of eternal glory, and to invite her to enter. She soon after sickened, and her end visibly approached. While a number of her friends were standing around her couch, she suddenly exclaimed, looking upwards, "Stand aside, stand aside, Jesus is coming;" and with a look of ineffable love, she presently expired. This story is related by St. Gregory.

This Pope is the best known of the four on account of his relationship to St. Gregory.

The fourth of the name was also a confessor. His festival occurs on the 30th January.

J. A. S.

Edinburgh, May 27. 1850.

* * * * *

REPLIES TO NUMISMATIC QUERIES.

I beg to offer the following remarks in reply to the numismatic queries of E. S. T. (Vol. i., p. 468.):--

1. I can only account for the Macedonian coin being struck in lead, by supposing it to be the work of an ancient forger.

2. Third brass coins of Tiberius are not uncommon; I have one in my cabinet of the sort described. Obv. head of Tiberius, TI. CAESAR. DIVI. AVG. F. AVGVSTVS; Rev. the altar of Lyons, ROM. ET. AVG.

3. The coin of Herennia Etruscilla is probably a base or plated denarius, the silver having been worn off. Silver coins sometimes acquire a black tarnish, so that they are not to be distinguished from brass without filing the edge, or steeping them in acid. If a genuine brass coin, it should have the S. C. for _Senatus Consultum_.

4. The coin of Macrinus was struck at Antioch in Syria, of which famous city there exists a regular series of imperial coins from Augustus to Valerian. One in my possession has ~Delta~ above the S. C., and ~Epsilon~ below for ~DEMARCH. EXOUSIAS~, _Tribunitia Potestate_. May not these be the letters described by E. S. T. as L. C.?

J. C. WITTON.

_Coins of Constantius II._--Can any numismatist kindly inform me by what marks the coins of Constantius II., the son of Constantine the Great, are distinguished from those of Constantius Gallus, his nephew? Mr. Akerman, in his _Rare and Inedited Roman Coins_, gives the following titles as common to both, but does not afford any rule for appropriating their coins:--

CONSTANTIVS. NOB. CAES. FL. IVL. CONSTANTIVS. NOB. CAES. D. N. CONSTANTIVS. NOB. C. D. N. CONSTANTIVS. NOB. CAES.

J. C. WITTON.

* * * * *

AS LAZY AS LUDLUM'S DOG.

(Vol. i., p. 382.)

I feel obliged by the extract from the _Doctor_ given by J. M. B. (Vol. i., p. 475.), though it only answers by a kind of implication the Query I proposed. That implication is, that, instead of Ludlum and his dog being personages of distinction in their own way and in their own day, the proverb itself is merely one framed on the principle of alliteration, and without precise or definite "meaning." This is very full of meaning, as anyone may convince himself by observing the active energy of every muscle of all dogs in the act of barking. What can typify "laziness" more emphatically than a dog that "lays him[self] down to bark?"

A _jingle_ of some kind is essential to a proverb. If a phrase or expression have not this, it never "takes" with the masses; whilst, having this, and being capable of any possible and common application, it is sure to live, either as a proverb or a "saw," as the case may be. Alliteration and rhyme are amongst the most frequent of these "jingles;" and occasionally a "pun" supplies their place very effectively. We find these conditions fulfilled in the proverbs and saws of every people in the eastern and western world, alike in the remotest antiquity and in our own time. But are they therefore "without meaning?" Do not these qualities help to give them meaning, as well as to preserve them through their long and varied existence?

But there is another principle equally essential to the constitution of a legitimate and lasting proverb; or rather two conjointly, _metre_ {43} and _euphony_. These may be traced in the proverb as completely as in the ballad; and precisely the same contrivances are employed to effect them in both cases where any ruggedness in the natural collocation of the words may present itself. For instance, change in the accent, the elision or the addition of a letter or syllable, the lengthening of a vowel, transposition, and a hundred other little artifices. The euphony itself, though sometimes a little imperfect, is also studied with the same kind of care in the older and purer proverbs of all languages.

Attention to metre and euphony will generally enable us to assign, amongst the forms in which we pick up and note any particular proverb, the original and legitimate one; especially when combined with brevity and "pith." As a case in point, our friend Ludlum will serve our purpose for comparison. Who does not see at a glance, taking account of the principles which govern the construction of a proverb, that the Sheffield version, as I gave it, _must be_ more genuine than Southey's version, quoted by J. M. B.? Besides this, I may add, that a friend, whose early days were spent in Sheffield, has told, me (since the Query was proposed) that he has heard his mother tell some legend of "the fat Miss Ludlum." After all, therefore, the proverb may be founded on a fat old maid and her fat poodle. I can hardly, then, deem my inquiry answered.

J. M. B. quotes two others from the _Doctor_; one for the purpose, as would appear by his marking the words, to illustrate the alliterative principle. The following are variations which I have heard:--"As proud as the cobbler's dog, that took [or _as_ took--the most general vernacular form, for the sake of euphony] the wall of a dung-cart, and got crushed for his pains." "As queer as Dick's hatband as went nine times round and wouldn't tie."

On these I will only remark, that few persons would pronounce dung-cart as J. M. B. implies, even for alliteration; and, indeed, when so even marked to the eye, it is not without an effort that we can read accordingly. As to Dick's hatband, it is expressed in a peculiarly clumsy and round-about manner by Southey.

One word more. J. M. B. quotes as a _proverb_--one of those without meaning--"As busy as Batty;" and says, "no one knows who Batty was." Surely, the inference that Batty was not a real personage in some distant age--that he was a mere myth--must be a _non sequitur_ from the premises before us. Perhaps Mr. Batty was a person of notable industry--perhaps remarkable for always beings in a "fluster"--perhaps the rural Paul Pry of his day and district. He has left, too, a large progeny; whether as regards the name alone, or whichever of the characters he bore.

This jingle upon words partakes largely of the character of the _pun_. It, however, reminds me of a mode of speech which universally prevailed in the north of Lincolnshire thirty years ago, and which probably does so yet. A specimen will explain the whole:--"I'm as throng as throng." "He looks as black as black." "It's as wet as wet." I have heard this mode used so as to produce considerable emphasis; and it is more than possible, that some of the jingles have thus originated, and settled into proverbs, now without any obvious meaning, but originally very forcible ones.

D. V. S.

Shooter's Hill, May 18.

* * * * *

Replies to Minor Queries.

_Lord John Townshend's Poetical Works_ (Vol. ii., p. 9.)--were never, I believe, collected, nor indeed distinctly known, though they well deserve to be. He told me himself that he wrote "Jekyl," in what is called _The Rolliad_; and he mentioned some other of his contributions; but I did not _make a note_, and regret that I can say no more. Mr. Rogers or Lord Lansdowne might.

C.

_When Easter ends._--Mr. H. Edwards, in this day's number (No. 31., p. 9.), asks when Easter ends. I fancy this question is in some degree answered by remarking, that it, together with other festivals of the Church, viz. The Nativity, &c., are celebrated for eight days, which is the octave. The reason, says Wheatley, of its

"Being fixed to eight days, is taken from the practice of the Jews, who, by God's appointment, observed the greater festivals, some of them for seven days, and one, the Feast of Tabernacles, for eight days. And therefore the Primitive Christians lengthened out their higher feast to eight days."

If this be true, Easter will end on the conclusion of the Sunday after Easter day; but whether our present Parliament is sufficiently Catholic to admit this, in the interpretation of the Act, is questionable.

In the Spanish Church Easter continues till the feast of Whitsuntide is past; and during this period all fasts are forbidden.

The Romish Church has ten high festivals having octaves.

I trust this slight sketch may in some way help Mr. Edwards to a conclusion.

R. J. S.

_When does Easter end?_ (Vol. ii., p. 9.).--In the case stated, at 12 o'clock on the night of Easter Sunday.

C.

_Holdsworth and Fuller._--In A. B. R.'s communication (Vol. i., p. 484.) some symptoms of inaccuracy must be noted before a satisfactory reply can be given to his Query.

1. He has erred in adopting the spelling of Holdsworth's name (viz. {44} Holsworth) which appears in the title-page of _The Valley of Vision_. 2. This work is very incorrectly styled "the sermon," inasmuch as it consists of twenty-one sermons. 3. My copy bears date 1661, not 1651. 4. If Holdsworth's hand was "legible only to himself," we may sincerely commiserate the misfortune of his nephew, Dr. Richard Pearson, who had to prepare for the press 737 folio pages of his _Praelectiones Theologicae_, &c.: Lond. 1661. 5. There is not the smallest reason for thinking it "probable" that Dean Holdsworth "preached other men's sermons." Respecting our great Caroline divines it would seldom have been right to say--

"Quos (Harpyiarum more) Convectare juvat praedas, et vivere rapto."

Now, as to what Dr. Holdsworth really wrote, and with regard to that for which he is not responsible, it is to be observed, that he was so averse to the publication of any of his works, that he printed but a single sermon (on Psalm cxliv. 15.), and that not until he had been three times urged to the task by his royal master King Charles I. The pagination of this discourse is quite distinct from that of the twenty unauthentic sermons which follow it in the quarto volume, and which commence at signature B. These are thus described by Dr. Pearson, _ad Lectorem_: "Caeterae quae prostant Anglice venales, a praedone illo stenographico tam lacerae et elumbes, tam misere deformatae sunt, ut parum aut nihil agnoscas genii et spiritus Holdsworthiani."

R. G.

_Gookin_ (Vol. i., pp. 385, 473, 492.).--Vincent Gookin was nominated by Cromwell one of the six representatives of Ireland in the Barebones Parliament; and he was returned for Bandon and Kinsale (which together sent one member) in each of the three subsequent Cromwellian Parliaments.

Lord Orrery, writing to the Duke of Ormond, June 15, 1666, speaks of Captain Robert Gooking, as one of the chief persons in the west of Cork county, and describes him as rich and having good brains, loyal, and ready to fight against French or Irish, as every thing he has depends on his new title. (Orrery's _State Letters_, ii. p. 13. Dublin edition.) A little further on (p. 43.), Lord Orrery names the same Robert Gooking as recommended by the chief gentlemen in the west of Cork to be captain of a troop of horse in the militia.

CH.

"_Brozier_" (Vol. i., p. 485.), "_Sock_," "_Tick._"--I well remember the phrase, "brozier my dame," signifying to "eat her out of house and home." I had forgotten that a boy at Eton was "brozier," when he had spent all his pocket-money. As a supplemental note, however, to Lord Braybrooke's remarks upon this latter signification, I would remind old Etonians of a request that would sometimes slip out from one in a "broziered" state, viz. that a schoolfellow would _sock_ him, _i.e._ treat him to _sock_ at the pastrycook's; and this favour was not unfrequently granted _on tick, i.e._ on credit with the purveyor of sweets.

In reply to your noble correspondent's Query, I beg to say that Halliwell, in his _Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words_, both spells and defines thus: "Brosier. A bankrupt. _Chesh._" Mr. H. says no more; but this seems to decide that the word does not exclusively belong to Eton. I could have fancied that on such classic ground it might possibly have sprung from ~brosko~, fut. ~-so~, _to devour_.

Is _sock_ only a corruption of _suck_, indicating a lollipop origin? or what is its real etymological root?

Richardson most satisfactorily says, that to "go on _tick_" is to give a note or _ticket_ instead of payment.

ALFRED GATTY.

Ecclesfield, May 27. 1850.

This Eton phrase, the meaning of which is very correctly explained LORD BRAYBROOKE (Vol. i., p. 485.), appears to be connected with the Cheshire provincialism, which is thus interpreted in Wilbraham's _Cheshire Glossary_:--

"'Brosier, _s._ a bankrupt.' It is often used by boys at play, when one of them has nothing further to stake."

The noun _brosier_, as Mr. Wilbraham indicates, seems to be derived from the old word _brose_, or, as we now say, _bruise_. A _brosier_ would therefore mean a broken-down man, and therefore a bankrupt. The verb _to brosier_, as used at Eton, would easily be formed from the substantive. In the mediaeval Latin, _ruptura_ and _ruptus_ were used to signify _bankruptcy_ and a _bankrupt_. See Duncange, _Gloss._ in vv.

ETONIENSIS.

The word _brozier_, or (as I always heard it pronounced) _brosier_, does not, or did not exclusively belong to Eton. It was current at Hackney School, an establishment formerly on the site of the present Infant Orphan Asylum, and had the precise meaning attributed to it by Lord Braybrooke. It was used both as a verb and as a substantive, but of its origin and etymology I am ignorant. The last master of Hackney School was the Rev. Dr. Heathcote, who died, I believe, about 1820. The schoolhouse was a very large and a very old building. May I take this opportunity of asking if anything is known of its history? There was a tradition prevalent among the boys, that it had been an hospital in the time of the Plague.

I recollect there was another singular word current at Hackney, viz. "buckhorse," for a smart box on the ear. {45}

C. M.

[Buckhorse was a celebrated bruiser, whose name has been preserved in this designation of a blow, in the same way as that of his successor "Belcher" has been in that of the peculiar style of silk handkerchief which he always wore.]

_Symbols of Four Evangelists._--Among the several replies to JARTZBERG'S Query (Vol. i., p. 385.), I do not observe any notice of Sir T. Brown's account of the symbols of the four Evangelists. I will therefore copy part of a note I have on the subject, though see it is unfortunately without any other reference than the _name_ of the author.

After giving _Jonathan's_ opinion of the four principal or legionary standards among the Israelites, Sir T. Brown adds:

"But Abenegra and others, besides the colours of the field, do set down other charges,--in Reuben's, the form of a man or mandrake,--in that of Judah, a lion,--in Ephraim's, an ox; in Dan's, the figure of an eagle. And thus, indeed, the four figures in the banners of the principal squadrons of Israel are answerable unto the Church in the vision of Ezekiel, every one carrying the form of all these.... And conformable hereunto, the pictures of the Evangelists (whose Gospels are the Christian banners) are set forth with the addition of a man or angel, an ox, a lion, and an eagle. And these symbolically represent the office of angels and ministers of God's will, in whom is required, understanding as in a man, courage and vivacity as in a lion, service and ministerial officiousness as in the ox, expedition or celerity of execution as in the eagle."

J. SANSOM.

_Catacombs and Bone-houses_ (Vol. i. p. 171.).--Part I. of a _History of the Hundred of Rowell_ by Paul Cypher (published by J. Ginns, Rowell,) has recently fallen in my way, and as I understand the writer is a medical gentleman residing in the village (or town), I condense from the account of the "Bone Caverns," p. 39-42., such particulars as may answer the Query of Rev. A. Gatty.

The number of skeletons, as is asserted by those who have taken the trouble to calculate, is 30,000. The vault in which they are deposited is a long cryptiform structure, with a low groined roof, and the bones are carefully packed in alternate strata of skulls, arms, legs, and so forth. They seem to have been discovered by a gravedigger about 150 years since. Nothing is known with certainty respecting the date of this vast collection. Some conjecture that the remains here deposited are the consequence of a sanguinary battle in very early times, and profess to discover peculiarities in the osseous structure, showing a large proportion of the deceased to have been natives of a distant land; that all were in the prime of life; and that most of the skulls are fractured, as though with deadly weapons. Others, again, say they are the remains of the slain at Naseby.

"I have examined carefully and at leisure the crania, and can discover none but the mesobreginate skulls common to these islands.... I have discovered more than one skull, in which the alveolar sockets were entirely absorbed,--an effect of age rarely produced under eighty years, I should imagine. And as to the marks of injury visible on some, they will be attributed, I think, by the impartial observer, rather to the spade and foot of the sexton, than the battle-axe and stout arm of the ancient Briton."

As to the supposition that these relics were brought from Naseby, it is sufficient to observe that the number of the slain in that engagement did not exceed one thousand.

"That most of these bodies were lying in the earth for a number of years is proved, I think, by these several circumstances: First, a careful examination of the interior of many of the skulls, shows that roots have vegetated within them, the dry fibres of which I have often observed; next, the teeth are nearly all absent, and it is notoriously one of the first effects of inhumation upon the osseous system, by which the teeth are loosened; and lastly, we have two sources from which bodies may have been exhumed and reinterred beneath the mother church; and those are the Chapel of the Virgin and that moiety of the original graveyard, which has evidently at some long distant time, been taken from the church."

Human bones have been dug up in front of Jesus Hospital, to the south-east of the church-yard. At the eastern extremity of the cavern is a rude sketch apparently intended to represent the Resurrection.

ARUN.

_Tace Latin for a Candle_ (Vol. i., p. 385).--I am not aware of "Tace is Latin for a candle" in any earlier book than Swift's _Polite Conversation_; but it must have been threadbare in his time, or he would not have inserted it in that great collection of platitudes:--

"_Lord Smart._ Well, but after all, Tom, can you tell me what is Latin for a goose?

"_Neverout._ O, my Lord, I know that; why, Brandy is Latin for a goose, and _Tace_ is Latin for a candle."

H. B. C.

_Members for Durham--why none prior to_ 1673-4 (Vol. ii., p. 8.).--Because Durham was an episcopal palatine, which had jurisdictions, and even, in olden times, a Parliament of its own. Several bills were brought in between 1562 and 1673, to give M.P.'s to both county and city; but an act was only passed in the latter year. The first writ was moved, it is said, in 1675; but the first return is dated in Whitworth, 1679. (Oldfield's _Parl. Hist._, iii. 425.)

C.