Part 2
"Touching coffee, I concurre with them in opinion, who hold it to be that black-broth which was us'd of old in Lacedemon, whereof the Poets sing; Surely it must needs be salutiferous, because so many sagacious, and the wittiest sort of Nations use it so much; as they who have conversed with Shashes and Turbants doe well know. But, besides the exsiccant quality it hath to dry up the crudities of the Stomach, as also to comfort the Brain, to fortifie the sight with its steem, and prevent Dropsies, Gouts, the Scurvie, together with the Spleen and Hypocondriacall windes (all which it doth without any violence or distemper at all), I say, besides all these qualities, 'tis found already, that this Coffee-drink hath caused a greater sobriety among the nations: For whereas formerly Apprentices and Clerks with others, used to take their mornings' draught in Ale, Beer, or Wine, which by the dizziness they cause in the Brain, make many unfit for businesse, they use now to play the Good-fellows in this wakefull and civill drink: Therefore that worthy Gentleman, Mr. Mudiford, who introduced the practice hereof first to London, deserves much respect of the whole Nation."
Of Judge Rumsey and his _Provang_ (which was a flexible whalebone from two to three feet long, with a small linen or silk button at the end, which was to be introduced into the stomach to produce the effect of an emetic), the reader may find some account in Wood's _Athen_. (Bliss's edit., vol. iii. p. 509.), and this is not the place to speak of them except as they had to do with coffee; on that point a few more words may be allowed.
Besides the letter of Howell already quoted, two others are prefixed to the book; one from the author to Sir Henry Blount, the other Sir Henry's reply. In the former the Judge says,--
"I lately understood that your discovery, in your excellent book of travels, hath brought the use of the Turkes Physick, of Cophie, in great request in England, whereof I have made use, in another form than is used by boyling of it in Turkie, and being less loathsome and troublesome," &c.
And Sir Henry, after a fervent panegyric on coffee, replies:--
"As for your way of taking both Cophie and Tobacco, the rarity of the invention consists in leaving the old way: For the water of the one and the smoke of the other may be of inconvenience to many; but your way in both takes in the virtue of the Simples without any additionall mischief."
As this may excite the reader's curiosity to know what was the Judge's new and superior "way" of using coffee, I will add his prescription for making "electuary of cophy," which is, I believe, the only preparation of it which he used or recommended:--
"Take equall quantity of Butter and Sallet-oyle, melt them well together, but not boyle them: Then stirre them well that they may incorporate together: Then melt therewith three times as much Honey, and stirre it well together: Then add thereunto Powder of Turkish Cophie, to make it a thick Electuary." p. 5.
A very little consideration may convince one that this electuary was likely to effect the purpose for which it was recommended.
"Whether," says the Judge, "it be in time of health or sickness, whensoever you find any evill disposition in the stomach, eat a convenient meal of what meat and drink you please, then walk a little while after it: Then set down your body bending, and thrust the said Whalebone Instrument into your stomach, stirring it very gently, which will make you vomit; then drink a good draught of drink, and so use the Instrument as oft as you please, but never doe this upon an empty stomach. To make the stomach more apt to vomit, and to prepare the humours thereunto before you eat and drink, Take the bigness of a Nutmeg or more of the said Electuary of Cophie, &c., into your mouth; {70} then take drink to drive it down; then eat and drink, and walk, and use the Instrument as before." p. 19.
Should any reader wish to test the efficacy of the learned Judge's prescription, I am afraid he must make an "instrument" for himself, or get one made for him; though when the _Organon Salutis_ was published, they were "commonly sold in London, and especially at the long shops in Westminster Hall."
As to the book, and the name of the author, I may add (with reference to Wood's _Athen._), that in the copy before me, which is, like that referred to by Dr. Bliss, of the first edition (not the second mentioned by Aubrey as published in 1659), the author's name does not appear on the _title-page_ at all. There we find only "By W. R. of Gray's Inne, Esq. Experto credo" [sic]; and really one seems as if one could believe any thing from a man who had habitually used such medicines, for I have said nothing of his infusion of tobacco, for which you must--
"Take a quarter of a pound of Tobacco, and a quart of Ale, White-wine, or Sider, and three or four spoonfulls of Hony, and two pennyworth of Mace; And infuse these by a soft fire, in a close earthen pot, to the consumption of almost the one-half, and then you may take from two spoonfulls to twelve [no tea-spoons in those days], and drink it in a cup with Ale or Beer."
One could, I say, believe almost any thing from a gentleman who under such a course of discipline was approaching the age of fourscore; but though the title-page has only his initials, the Dedication to the Marquess of Dorchester, and the letter to Sir Henry Blount, are both signed "Will. Rumsey."
S. R. M.
[Footnote 3: See Vol. i. pp. 124. 139. 156. 242. 300. and 399.]
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Queries.
QUERIES CONCERNING OLD MSS.
I am very desirous of gaining some knowledge respecting the following MSS., especially as regards their locality at the present time. Perhaps some of your numerous readers can help me to the information which I seek.
1. "Whitelocke's Labours remembered in the Annales of his Life, written for the use of his Children." This valuable MS. contains a most minute and curious account of the performance of Shirley's masque, entitled _The Triumphs of Peace_. In 1789, when Dr. Burney published the third volume of his _History of Music_, it was in the possession of Dr. Morton of the British Museum.--Query, Was Dr. Morton's library disposed of by auction, or what was its destiny?
2. "A MS. Treatise on the Art of Illumination, written in the year 1525." This MS. is said by Edward Rowe Mores, in his _Dissertation upon English Typographical Founders_, to have been in the possession of Humphrey Wanley, who by its help "refreshed the injured or decayed illuminations in the library of the Earl of Oxford." The MS. was transcribed by Miss Elstob in 1710, and a copy of her transcript was in the possession of Mr. George Ballard. Where now is the original?
3. "A Memorandum-book in the handwriting of Paul Bowes, Esq., son of Sir Thomas Bowes, of London, and of Bromley Hall, Essex, Knight, and dated 1673." In 1783 this MS., which contains some highly interesting and important information, was in the possession of a gentleman named Broke, of Nacton in Suffolk, a descendant from the Bowes family; but I have not been able to trace it further.
4. "The Negotiations of Thomas Wolsey, Cardinall." This valuable MS. was in the collection of Dr. Farmer, who wrote on the fly-leaf,--
"I believe several of the Letters and State Papers in this volume have not been published; three or four are printed in the collections at the end of Dr. Fiddes' _Life of Wolsey_, from a MS. in the Yelverton Library."
If I remember rightly, the late Richard Heber afterwards came into the possession of this curious and important volume. It is lamentable to think of the dispersion of poor Heber's manuscripts.
EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.
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Minor Queries.
_Chantrey's Sleeping Children in Lichfield Cathedral._--In reference to a claim recently put forth on behalf of an individual to the merit of having designed and executed this celebrated monument, Mr. Peter Cunningham says (_Literary Gazette_, June 5.),--"The merit of the composition belongs to Chantrey and Stothard." As a regular reader of the "NOTES AND QUERIES," I shall feel obliged to Mr. Cunningham (whose name I am always glad to see as a correspondent) if he will be kind enough to inform me on what evidence he founds the title of Mr. Stothard to a share of the merit of a piece of sculpture, which is so generally attributed to the genius of Chantrey?
PLECTRUM.
_Viscount Dundee's Ring._--In the _Letters of John Grahame of Claverhouse, Viscount of Dundee_, printed for the Bannatyne Club in 1826, is a description and engraving of a ring containing some of Ld. Dundee's hair, with the letters V.D., surmounted by a coronet, worked on it in gold; and on the inside of the ring are engraved a skull, and the posey--"Great Dundee, for God and me, J. Rex."
The ring, which belonged to the family of Graham of Duntrune (representative of Viscount Dundee), has for several years been lost or mislaid; perhaps, through some of the numerous readers of the "NOTES AND QUERIES," information {71} might be obtained as to the place where that ring is at present preserved, and whether there would be any possibility of the family recovering it by purchase or otherwise.
W. C. TREVELYAN.
Duntrune, near Dundee.
_The Kilkenny Cats._--I would feel obliged if any of your correspondents could give me information as to the first, or any early, published allusion to the strange tale, modernly become proverbial, of the ferocity of the cats of Kilkenny. The story generally told is, that two of those animals fought in a sawpit with such ferocious determination that when the battle was over nothing could be found remaining of either combatant except _his tail_,--the marvellous inference to be drawn therefrom being, of course, that they had devoured each other. This ludicrous anecdote has, no doubt, been generally looked upon as an absurdity of the Joe Miller class; but this I conceive to be a mistake. I have not the least doubt that the story of the mutual destruction of the contending cats was an allegory designed to typify the utter ruin to which centuries of litigation and embroilment on the subject of conflicting rights and privileges tended to reduce the respective exchequers of the rival municipal bodies of Kilkenny and Irishtown,--separate corporations existing within the liberties of one city, and the boundaries of whose respective jurisdiction had never been marked out or defined by an authority to which either was willing to bow. Their struggles for precedency, and for the maintenance of alleged rights invaded, commenced A.D. 1377. (see _Rot. Claus._ 51 Ed. III. 76.), and were carried on with truly feline fierceness and implacability till the end of the seventeenth century, when it may fairly be considered that they had mutually devoured each other to the very _tail_, as we find their property all mortgaged, and see them each passing by-laws that their respective officers should be content with the dignity of their station, and forego all hope of salary till the suit at law with the other "pretended corporation" should be terminated, and the incumbrances thereby caused removed with the vanquishment of the enemy. Those who have taken the story of the Kilkenny cats in its literal sense have done grievous injustice to the character of the grimalkins of the "faire cittie," who are really quite as demure and quietly disposed a race of tabbies as it is in the nature of any such animals to be.
JOHN G. A. PRIM.
Kilkenny.
_Robert de Welle._--Can any of your correspondents inform me of what family was Robert de Welle, who married Matilda, one of the co-heirs of Thomas de Clare, and in 15th Edward II. received seisin of possessions in Ireland, and a mediety of the Seneschalship of the Forest of Essex in her right? (_Rotul. Original., Record Commission_, pp. 266, 277.) And how came the Irish title of Baron Welles into the family of Knox?
Again, where can I meet with a song called the Derby Ram, very popular in my school-boy days, but of which I recollect only one stanza,--
"The man that killed the ram, Sir, Was up to his knees in blood; The boy that held the bucket, Sir, Was carried away in the flood."
I fancy it had an electioneering origin.
H. W.
_Lady Slingsby._--Among many of the plays temp. Car. II. the name of "The Lady Slingsby" occurs in the list of performers composing the _dramatis personæ_. Who was this Lady Slingsby?
T.
_God save the Queen._--Can any correspondent state the reason of the recent discontinuance of this brief but solemn and scriptural ejaculation, at the close of royal proclamations, letters, &c., read during the service of the Church?
J. H. M.
_Meaning of Steyne--Origin of Adur._--Can any of your correspondents give the derivation of the word "Steyne," as used at Brighton, for instance? or the origin of the name "Adur," a small river running into the sea at Shoreham?
F.
_Col. Lilburn._--Who was the author of a book called _Lieut.-Colonel John Lilburn tryed and cast, or his Case and Craft discovered, &c., &c._, published by authority, 1653?
P. S. W. E.
_French Verses._--Will one of your readers kindly inform me from what French poet the two following stanzas are taken?
"La Mort a des rigueurs à nulle autre pareilles. On a beau la prier, La cruelle, qu'elle est, se bouche les oreilles, Et nous laisse crier.
"Le pauvre en sa cabane, que le chaume couvre, Est sujet à ses lois; Et la garde qui veille aux barrières du Louvre N'en défend pas les rois."
E. R. C. B.
_Our World._--I once heard a lady repeat the following pithy lines, and shall be glad if any of your readers can tell me who is the author, and where they first appeared,
"'Tis a very good world to live in-- To lend, and to spend, and to give in; But to beg, or to borrow, or ask for one's own, 'Tis the very worst world that ever was known."
D. V. S.
Home, April 29.
_Porson's Imposition._--When Porson was at Cambridge, his tutor lent him a pound to buy books, which he spent in getting drunk at a {72} tavern. The tutor set him an imposition, which he made to consist in a dog-Greek poem, giving an account of the affair. These were the three first lines,--
[Greek: "Tutor emoi men poundon elendeto; ôs mala simplos] [Greek: Ton men egô spendon kata dômata redlionoio,] [Greek: Drinkomenos kai rhôromenos dia nukta bebaiôs."]
Then part of another,--
[Greek: "--autar egô megalois klubboisin ebanchthên."]
I cannot but think that some Cambridge men know the whole, which would be invaluable to retrieve. There is nothing about it in Kidd.
C. B.
_Alice Rolle._--Can any of your readers conversant with Irish pedigrees, if they remember to have met with this lady's name, kindly inform me where it may be found?
S. S. S.
_The Meaning of "Race" in Ship-building._--In Hawkin's _Voyages_ ("Hakluyt Society, 1847"), p. 199., he says, "Here is offerred to speak of a point much canvassed amongst carpenters and sea-captains, diversely maintained but yet undetermined, that is, whether the _race_, or loftie built shippe, bee best for the merchant;" and again, p. 219.: "A third and last cause of the losse of sundry of our men, most worthy of note for all captains, owners, and carpenters, was the _race_ building of our ship, the onely fault she had," &c. Can any of your correspondents explain what is meant by "race"; the editor of the _Voyages_, Captain C. R. D. Bethune, R.N., confesses himself unable to explain it.
E. N. W.
Southwark, May 27. 1850.
_The Battle of Death._--I possess a curious old print entitled "The Battle of Death against all Creatures, and the Desolation wrought by Time." It bears the engraver's name, "Robert Smith," but no date. The figures, however, which are numerous, and comprise all ranks, seem to present the costume of the latter end of the 16th century. There is a long inscription in verse, and another in prose: query, who was the author of the verses, and what is the date of the engraving? As I am on the subject of prints, perhaps some person learned in such matters will also be kind enough to inform me what number constitutes a complete series of the engravings after Claude by Francis Vivares; and who was "Jean Rocque, Chirographaire du Roi," who executed several maps of portions of London, also a map of Kilkenny?
X. Y. A.
Kilkenny, June 8. 1850.
_Execution of Charles I._--Is the name of the executioner known who beheaded King Charles I.? Is there any truth in the report that it was an Earl Stair?
P. S. W. E.
_Morganitic Marriage._--In Ducange, &c., the adjective _morganitic_ is connected with the _morgangab_ (morning gift), which was usual from a husband to his wife the day after their marriage. How comes this adjective to be applied to marriages in which the wife does not take her husband's rank?
M.
_Lord Bacon's Palace and Gardens._--Will any of your architectural or landscape gardening readers inform me whether any attempts were ever made by any of our English sovereigns or nobility, or by any of our rich men of science and taste, to carry out, in practice, Lord Bacon's plans of _a princely palace_, or _a prince-like garden_, as so graphically and so beautifully described in his _Essays_, xlv. and xlvi., "Of Building" and "Of Gardens"?
I cannot but think that if such an attempt was never made, the failure is discreditable to us as a nation; and that this work ought yet to be executed, as well for its own intrinsic beauty and excellence, as in honour of the name and fame of its great proposer.
EFFARESS.
June 24. 1850.
_"Dies Iræ, Dies Illa."_--Will any of your correspondents oblige me by answering the following Queries. Who was the author of the extremely beautiful hymn, commencing--
"Dies iræ, dies illa, Solvet soeclum in favilla Teste David cum Sibylla."
And in what book was it first printed?
A copy of it is contained in a small tract in our library, entitled _Lyrica Sacra, excerpta ex Hymnis Ecclesiæ Antiquis. Privatim excusa Romæ_, 1818. At the end of the preface is subscribed "T. M. Anglus." And on the title page in MS., "For the Rev. Dr. Milner, Dean of Carlisle, Master of Queen's College, in the University of Cambridge, from T. J. Mathia--" the rest of the name has been cut off in binding; it was probably Mathias. As here given, it has only twenty-seven lines. The original hymn is, I believe, much longer.
W. SPARROW SIMPSON.
Queen's College, Cambridge.
_Aubrey Family._--In Burke's _Peerage and Baronetage_, under the head "Aubrey," I find the following passage:--
"Vincent, Windsor Herald in the time of Elizabeth, compiled a pedigree of the family of Aubrey, which he commences thus:--'Saint Aubrey, of the blood royal of France, came into England with William the Conqueror, anno 1066, as the Chronicles of All Souls College testify, which are there to be seen tied to a chain of iron.'"
Can any of your readers give me any information respecting this "Saint Aubrey," whose name I have not been able to find in the Roll of Battle {73} Abbey: or respecting his son, Sir Reginald Aubrey, who aided Bernard de Newmarch in the conquest of the Marches of Wales, and any of his descendants?
PWCCA.
_Ogden Family._--The writer is very desirous of information as to the past history of a family of the name of _Ogden_. Dr. Samuel Ogden, the author of a volume of sermons, published in 1760, was a member of it. A branch of the family emigrated to America about 1700, and still exists there. They yet bear in their crest allusion to a tradition, that one of their family hid Charles II. in an oak, when pursued by his enemies. What authority is there for this story? I shall be grateful for any indications of sources of information that may seem likely to aid my researches.
TWYFORD.
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Replies.
SIR GEORGE BUC.
It has often been noticed, that when a writer wishes to support some favourite hypothesis, he quite overlooks many important particulars that militate against his own view of the case. The Rev. Mr. Corser, in his valuable communication respecting Sir George Buc (Vol. ii., p. 38.), is not exempt from this accusation. He has omitted the statement of Malone, that "Sir George Buc died on the 28th of September, 1623." (Boswell's _Shakspeare_, iii. 59.) We know _positively_ that in May 1622, Sir George, "by reason of sickness and indisposition of body, wherewith it hath pleased God to visit him, was become disabled and insufficient to undergo and perform" the duties of Master of the Revels; and it is equally _positive_ that Malone would not so circumstantially have said, "Sir George Buc _died_ on the 28th of September, 1623," without some good authority for so doing. It is only to be regretted that the learned commentator neglected to give that authority.
Mr. Corser wishes to show that Sir George Buc's days "were further prolonged till 1660;" but I think he is in error as to his conclusions, and that _another_ George Buc must enter the field and divide the honours with his knightly namesake.
It is perfectly clear that a George Buc was living long after the date assigned as that of the death of Sir George, by Malone. This George _Buck_, for so he invariably spells his name, contributed a copy of verses to Yorke's _Union of Honour_, 1640; to Shirley's _Poems_, 1646; and to the folio edition of Beaumont and Fletcher's _Plays_, 1647. Ritson, then, when speaking of Sir George Buc's _Great Plantagenet_, as published in 1635, was rather hasty in pronouncing it as the work of "some fellow who assumed his name," because here is evidence that a person of the same name (if not Sir George himself, as Mr. Corser thinks) was living at the period. The name, if _assumed_ in the case of the _Great Plantagenet_, would hardly have been kept up in the publications just alluded to.
In the British Museum, among the Cotton MSS. (_Tiberius_, E. X.), is preserved a MS. called "The history of King Richard the Third, comprised in five books, gathered and written by Sir G. Buc, Knight, Master of the King's Office of the Revels, and one of the gentlemen of his Majesty's Privy Chamber." This MS., which appears to have been the author's rough draft, is corrected by interlineations and erasements in every page. It is much injured by fire, but a part of the dedication to Sir Thomas Howard, the Earl of Arundel, &c., still remains, together with "an advertisement to the reader," which is dated "from the King's Office of the Revels, St. Peter's Hill, 1619." This _history_ was first published in 1646, by George Buck, _Esquire_, who says, in his dedication to Philip, the Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery, "that he had _collected these papers out of their dust_." Here is evidence that the work was not _published_ by the original compiler; besides, how can Mr. Corser reconcile his author's knighthood with the designations on the respective title-pages of _The Great Plantagenet_, and _The History of Richard the Third_? In the former the writer is styled "George Buck, _Esquire_," and in the latter, "George Buck, _Gentleman_." It is difficult to account for Mr. Corser's omission of these facts, because I am well assured, that, with his extensive knowledge of our earlier poets, my information is not new to him.
That there were _two_ George Bucs in the seventeenth century, and both of them poets, cannot, I think, be doubted. Perhaps they were not even relations; at any rate, Mr. Corser's account of the parentage of _one_ differs from mine entirely.