Chapter 2

[Footnote 3: This view will no doubt be contested on the authority of Stow, who describes the tonne as a "prison for night-walkers," so called from the form in which it was built. (Cunningham, p. 141., 2nd ed.) Yet, as Mr. Cunningham elsewhere states (p. xxxix.), "the Tun upon Corn-hill [was] converted into a conduit" in 1401, it would hardly be called a "prison" a century later. The probability is, that the especial building called the tonne never was a prison at all; but that the prison, from standing near or adjoining the tonne, took its name, the tonne prison, in conformity with universal usage. It is equally probable that the tonne was originally built for the purpose to which it was ultimately applied; and that some delay arose in its use from the difficulty experienced in the hydraulic part of the undertaking, which was only overcome in 1401. The universality of the punishment of "ducking" amongst our ancestors is at least a circumstance in favour of the view taken in the text.]

* * * * *

FOLK LORE.

_Midsummer Fires._--From your notice of Mr. Haslam's account of the Beltein or Midsummer fires in Cornwall, I conclude you will give a place to the following note. On St. John's eve last past, I happened to pass the day at a house situate on an elevated tract in the county of Kilkenny, Ireland; and I shall long remember the beauty of the sight, when, as dusk closed in, fire after fire shot up its clear flame, thickly studding the near plains and distant hills. The evening was calm and still, and the mingled shouts and yells of the representatives of the old fire-worshippers came with a very singular effect on the ear. When a boy, I have often _passed through_ the fire myself on Midsummer eve, and such is still the custom. The higher the flame, the more daring the act is considered: hence there is a sort of emulation amongst the unwitting perpetrators of this Pagan rite. In many places cattle are driven through the fire; and this ceremony is firmly believed to have a powerful effect in preserving them from various harms. I need not say, that amongst the peasantry the fires are now lighted in honour of St John.

X.Y.A.

Kilkenny.

* * * * *

MINOR NOTES.

_Borrowed Thoughts._--Mr. SINGER (Vol. i., p. 482.) points out the French original from which Goldsmith borrowed his epigram beginning--

"Here lies poor Ned Purdon."

I find, in looking over Swift's works, a more literal version of this than Goldsmith's:--

"Well then, poor G---- lies under ground, So there's an end of honest Jack; So little justice here he found, 'Tis ten to one he'll ne'er come back."

I should like to add two Queries:--Who was the Chevallier de Cailly (or d'Aceilly), the author of the French epigram mentioned by Mr. Singer? And--when did he live?

H.C. DE ST. CROIX

_An Infant Prodigy in 1659._--The following wonderful story is thus related by Archbishop Bramhall (Carte's _Letters_, ii. 208.: Dr. Bramhall to Dr. Earles, Utrecht, Sept. 6-16, 1659):--

"A child was born in London about three months since, with a double tongue, or divided tongue, which the third day after it was born, cried 'a King, a King,' and bid them bring it to the King. The mother of the child saieth it told her of all that happened in England since, and much more which she dare not utter. This my lady of Inchiguin writeth to her aunt, _Me brow van Melliswarde_[4], living in this city, who shewed me the letter. My Lady writeth that she herself was as incredulous as any person, until she both saw and heard it speak herself very lately, as distinctly as she herself could do, and so loud that all the room heard it. That which she heard was this. A gentleman in the company took the child in his arms and gave it money, and asked what it would do with it, to which it answered aloud that it would give it to the King. If my Lady were so foolish to be deceived, or had not been an eye and ear witness herself, I might have disputed it; but giving credit to her, I cannot esteem it less than a miracle. If God be pleased to bestow a blessing upon us, he cannot want means."

It can hardly be doubted that the Archbishop's miracle was a ventriloquist hoax.

CH.

[Footnote 4: The name of the Dutch lady, mis-written for De Vrouw, &c.]

_Allusion in Peter Martyr._--Mr. Prescott, in his _History of the Conquest of Mexico_ vol. i. p. 389. (ed. 8vo. 1843), quotes from Peter Martyr, _De Orbe Novo_, dec. 1. c. l., the words, "Una illis fuit spes salutis, desperasse de salute," applied to the Spanish invaders of Mexico; and he remarks that "it is said with the classic energy of Tacitus." The {102} expression is classical, but is not derived from Tacitus. The allusion is to the verse of Virgil:--

"Una salus victis nullam sperare salutem."

_Æn._ ii. 354.

L.

_Hogs not Pigs._--In Cowper's humorous verses, "The yearly Distress, or Tithing-time at Stoke in Essex," one of the grumblers talks

"of pigs that he has lost By maggots at the tail."

Upon this I have to remark that an intelligent grazier assures me that pigs are never subject to the evil here complained of, but that lambs of a year old, otherwise called "hogs" or "hoggets," are often infested by it. It would appear, therefore, that the poet, misled by the ambiguous name, and himself knowing nothing of the matter but by report, attributed to pigs that which happens to the other kind of animal, viz. lambs a year old, which have not yet been shorn.

J. MN.

* * * * *

QUERIES.

A QUERY AND REPLIES.

_Plaister or Paster--Christian Captives--Members for Calais, &c._--In editing Tyndale's _Pathway_ (_Works_, vol. i. p. 22.), I allowed preceding editors to induce me to print _pastor_, where the oldest authority had _paster_. As the following part of the sentence speaks of "suppling and suaging wounds," I am inclined to suspect that "paster" might be an old way of spelling, "plaster." Can any of your correspondents supply me with any instance in which "plaster" or "plaister" is spelt "paster" by any old English writer?

In return for troubling you with this question, you may inform Mr. Sansom, in answer to Query, Vol. ii., p. 41., that Hallam says, "Not less than fifty gentlemen were sold for slaves at Barbadoes, under Cromwell's government." (_Constit. Hist._, ch. x. note to p. 128., 4to. edit.) And though Walker exaggerated matters when he spoke "a project to sell some of the most eminent masters of colleges, &c., to the Turks for slaves," Whitelock's _Memorials_ will inform him, under date of Sept. 21, 1648, that the English Parliament directed one of its committees "to take care for transporting the Scotch prisoners, in the first place to supply the plantations, and to send the rest to Venice."

To another, O.P.Q. (Vol. ii., p. 9.), you may state that the members for Calais in the time of Edw. VI., and in the first four parliaments of Mary, may be seen in Willis' _Notitia Parliamentaria_, where their names are placed next to the members for the Cinque Ports. Willis states that the return for Calais for the last parliament of Henry VIII is lost. Their names indicate that they were English,--such as Fowler, Massingberd, &c.

As to umbrellas, there are Oriental scholars who can inform your inquirers that the word "satrap" is traceable to words whose purport is, the bearer of an umbrella.

Another of your latest Querists may find the epigrams on George II.'s (not, as he imagines, Charles I.'s) different treatment of the two English universities in Knox's _Elegent Extracts_. The lines he has cited are both from the same epigram, and, I think, from the first of the two. They were occasioned by George. II's purchasing the library of Dr. Moore, Bishop of Ely, and giving it to the university of Cambridge.

The admirer of another epigram has not given it exactly as I can remember it in a little book of emblems more than fifty years ago:--

"'Tis an excellent world that we live in, To lend, to spend, or to give in; But to borrow or beg, or get a man's own, 'Tis just the worst world that ever was known."

H. WALTER.

* * * * *

LETTERS OF QUEEN ELIZABETH AND PHILIP II. OF SPAIN.

Perhaps some of your readers may be able to inform me whether any of the following letters between Queen Elizabeth and Philip II. of Spain, extracted from the archives of Simancas, have yet appeared in print:--

1. Queen Elizabeth to Philip II., January 9, 1562-3.

2. Answer, April 2, 1563.

3. Philip II.'s reply to the English ambassador in the case of Bishop Cuadra, April, 1563.

4. Charges made in England against the Bishop of Aquila, Philip's ambassador, and the answers.

5. Queen Elizabeth to Philip II., January 18, 1569.

6. Philip to Elizabeth, May 9, 1569.

7. Elizabeth to Philip, March 20, 1571.

8. Answer, June 4, 1571.

9. Declaration of the Council to the Spanish ambassador Don Gueran de Espes, Dec. 14, 1571.

10. The ambassador's answer.

11. Elizabeth to Philip, Dec. 16, 1571.

12. Bermandino de Mendoza to Philip II., in cypher, London, January 26, 1584.

13. Philip to Elizabeth, July, 16, 1568.

14. Duke of Alva to Philip II., January 14, 1572.

15. Minutes of a letter from Philip II. to Don Gueran de Espes, February 24, 1572.

A.M.

* * * * * {103}

MINOR QUERIES.

_The New Temple._--As your correspondent L.B.L. states (Vol. ii., p. 75.) that he has transcribed a MS. survey of the Hospitallers' lands in England, taken in 1338, he will do me a great kindness if he will extract so much of it as contains a description of the New Temple in London, of which they became possessed just before that date. It will probably state whether it was then in the occupation of themselves or others: and, even if it does not throw any light on the tradition that the lawyers were then established there, or explain the division into the Inner and Middle Temple, it will at least give some idea of the boundaries, and perhaps determine whether the site of Essex House, which, in an ancient record is called the Outer Temple, was then comprehended within them.

EDWARD FOSS.

"_Junius Identified._"--The name of "John Taylor" is affixed to the Preface, and there can be little doubt, I presume, that Mr. John Taylor was literally _the writer_ of this work. It has, however, already become a question of some interest, to what extent he was assisted by Mr. Dubois. The late Mr. George Woodfall always spoke of the pamphlet as the work of Dubois. Lord Campbell, in his _Lives of the Chancellors_, published a statement by Lady Francis in respect to Sir Philip's claim to the authorship of _Junius' Letters_, and thus introduced it--"I am indebted for it to the kindness of my old and excellent friend, Mr. Edward Dubois, _the ingenious author of 'Junius Identified'_" Mr. Dubois was then, and Mr. Taylor is now living, and both remained silent. Sir Fortunatus Dwarris, the intimate friend of Dubois, states that he was "_a connection_ of Sir Philip Francis", and that the pamphlet is "said, I know not with what truth, to have been prepared under the eye of Sir Philip Francis, it may be, through the agency of Dubois." Dubois was certainly connected with, though not, I believe, related to Sir Philip; and at the time of the publication he was also connected with Mr. Taylor. I hope, under these circumstances, that Mr. Taylor will think it right to favour you with a statement of the facts, that future "Note"-makers may not perplex future editors with endless "Queries" on the subject.

R.J.

_Mildew in Books._--Can you, or any of your readers, suggest a preventive for mildew in books?

In a valuable public library in this town (Liverpool), much injury has been occasioned by mildew, the operations of which appear very capricious; in some cases attacking the printed part of an engraving, leaving the margin unaffected; in others attacking the inside of the backs _only_; and in a few instances it attacks all parts with the utmost impartiality.

Any hints as to cause or remedy will be most acceptable.

B.

_George Herbert's Burial-place._--Can any of your correspondents inform me where the venerable George Herbert, rector of Bemerton, co. Wilts., was buried, and whether there is any monument of him existing in any church?

J.R. Fox.

_The Earl of Essex, and "The Finding of the Rayned Deer."_--

"There is a boke printed at Franker in Friseland, in English, entitled _The Finding of the Rayned Deer_, but it bears title to be printed in Antwerp, it should say to be done by som prieste in defence of the late Essex's tumult."

The above is the postscript to a letter of the celebrated Father Parsons written "to one Eure, in England", April 30, 1601, a contemporary copy of which exists in the State Paper Office [Rome,] Whitehall. Can any of your readers tell me whether anything is known of this book?

SPES.

June 28. 1850.

_The Lass of Richmond Hill._--I should be much obliged by being informed who wrote the _words_ of the above song, and when, if it was produced originally at some place of public entertainment. The Rev. Thomas Maurice, in his elegant poem on Richmond Hill, has considered it to have been written upon a Miss Crop, who committed suicide on that spot, April 23rd, 1782; but he was evidently misinformed, as it appeared some few years later, and had no reference to that event. I have heard it attributed to Leonard Mac Nally, a writer of some dramatic pieces, but on no certain grounds; and it may have been a Vauxhall song about the year 1788. The music was by James Hook, the father of Theodore Hook.

QUÆRO.

_Curfew._--In what towns or villages in England is the old custom of ringing the curfew still retained?

NABOC.

_Alumni of Oxford, Cambridge, and Winchester._--Are the alumni of the various colleges of Oxford, Cambridge, and Winchester, published from an early period, and the various preferments they held, similar to the one published at Eton.

J.R. Fox.

_St. Leger's Life of Archbishop Walsh._--In Doctor Oliver's _History of the Jesuits_, it is stated that William St. Leger, an Irish member of that Society, wrote the _Life of Thomas Walsh, Archbishop of Cashel_, in Ireland, published in 4to. at Antwerp in 1655. Can any of your numerous readers inform me if a copy of this work is to be found in the British Museum, or any other public library, and something of its contents?

J.W.H. {104}

_Query put to a Pope._--

"Sancte Pater! scire vellem Si Papatus mutat pellem?"

I have been told that these lines were addressed to one of the popes, whose life, before his elevation to the see of St. Peter, had been passed in excesses but little suited to the clerical profession.

They were addressed to him _orally_, by one of his former associates, who met and stopped him while on his way to or from some high festival of the Church, and who plucked aside, as he spoke, the gorgeous robes in which his quondam fellow-reveller was dressed.

The reply of the pope was prompt, and, like the question, in a rhyming Latin couplet. I wish, if possible, to discover, the name of the pope;--the terms of his reply;--the name of the bold man who "_put him to the question_;"--by what writer the anecdote is recorded, or on what authority it rests.

C. FORBES.

Temple.

_The Carpenter's Maggot._--I have in my possession a MS. tune called the "Carpenter's Maggot," which, until within the last few years, was played (I know for nearly a century) at the annual dinner of the Livery of the Carpenters' Company. Can any of your readers inform me where the original is to be found, and also the origin of the word "Maggot" as applied to a tune?

F.T.P.

_Lord Delamere._--Can any of your readers give me the words of a song called "Lord Delamere," beginning:

"I wonder very much that our sovereign king, So many large taxes upon this land should bring."

And inform me to what political event this song, of which I have an imperfect MS. copy, refers.

EDWARD PEACOCK, JUN.

_Henry and the Nut-brown Maid._--SEARCH would be obliged for any information as to the authorship of this beautiful ballad.

[Mr. Wright, in his handsome black-letter reprint, published by Pickering in 1836, states, that "it is impossible to fix the date of this ballad," and has not attempted to trace the authorship. We shall be very glad if SEARCH's Query should produce information upon either of these points.]

* * * * *

REPLIES.

FRENCH POEM BY MALHERBE.

The two stanzas your correspondent E.R.C.B. has cited (Vol. ii., p. 71.) are from an elegiac poem by MALHERBE (who died in 1628, at the good old age of seventy-three), which is entitled _Consolation à Monsieur Du Perrier sur la Mort de sa Fille_. It has always been a great favorite of mine; for, like Gray's Elegy and the celebrated _Coplas_ of Jorge Manrique on the death of his father, beside its philosophic moralising strain, it has that pathetic character which makes its way at once to the heart. I will transcribe the first four stanzas for the sake of the beauty of the fourth:--

"Ta douleur, Du Perrier, sera done éternelle, Et les tristes discours Que te met en l'esprit l'amitié paternelle L'augmenteront toujours.

"Le malheur de ta fille au tombeau descendue, Par un commun trépas, Est-ce quelque dédale, où ta raison perdue Ne se retrouve pas?

"Je sai de quels appas son enfance estoit pleine; Et n'ay pas entrepris, Injurieux ami, de soulager ta peine Avecque son mépris.

"Mais elles estoit du monde, où les plus belles choses Ont le pire destin: Et Rose elle a vécu ce que vivent les roses, L'espace d'un matin."

The whole poem consists of twenty-one stanzas and should be read as a whole; but there are several other striking passages. The consolation the poet offers to his friend breathes the spirit of Epictetus:--

"De moy, déjà deux fois d'une pareille foudre Je me suis vu perclus, Et deux fois la raison m'a si bien fait resoudre, Qu'il ne m'en souvient plus.

"Non qu'il ne me soit grief que la terre possède Ce qui me fut si cher; Mais en un accident qui n'a point de remède, II n'en faut point chercher."

Then follow the two stanzas cited by your correspondent, and the closing verse is:--

"De murmurer contre-elle et perdre patience, Il est mal-à-propos: Vouloir ce que Dieu veut, est la seule science Qui nous met en repos."

The stanza beginning "Le pauvre en sa cabane," is an admirable imitation of the "Pallida mors æquo pulsat pede," &c. of Horace, which a countryman of the poet is said to have less happily rendered "La pâle mort avec son pied de cheval," &c.

Malherbe has been duly appreciated in France: his works, in one edition, are accompanied by an elaborate comment by Menage and Chevreau: Racan wrote his life, and Godeau, Bishop of Vence, a panegyrical preface. He was a man of wit, and ready at an impromptu; yet it is said, that in writing a consolotary poem to the President de Verdun, on the death of his wife, he was so long {105} in bringing his verses to that degree of perfection which satisfied his own fastidious taste, that the president was happily remarried, and the consolation not at all required.

Bishop Hurd, in a note on the _Epistle to Augustus_, p. 72., says:

"Malherbe was to the French pretty much what Horace had been to Latin poetry. These great writers had, each of them, rescued the lyric muse of their country out of the rude ungracious hands of their old poets. And, as their talents of a _good ear_, _elegant judgment_, and _correct expression_, were the same, they presented her to the public in all the air and grace, and yet _severity_, of beauty, of which her form was susceptible."

S.W. SINGER.

Mickleham, July 2. 1850.

* * * * *

"DIES IRÆ, DIES ILLA."

In reply to the first of Mr. SIMPSON's Queries (Vol. ii., p. 72.) relative to the magnificent sequence _Dies iræ_, I beg to say that the author of it is utterly unknown. The following references may be sufficient:--Card. Bona, _Rer. Liturgic._ lib. ii. cap. vi. p. 336., Romæ, 1671; or, if possible, Sala's edition, tom. iii. p 143., Aug. Turin. 1753; Gavantus, tom. i. pp. 274-5., Lugd. 1664; and the _Additions_ by Merati, i. 117-18., Aug. Vindel, 1740; Zaccaria, _Biblioth. Ritual._ tom. i. p. 34., Romæ, 1776; Oldoini Addit. ad Ciaconii _Vit. Pontiff. et Cardd._, tom. ii. col. 222., Romæ, 1677.

Mr. SIMPSON's second question is, "In what book was it first printed?" Joannes de Palentia, in his notes upon the _Ordinarium PP. Præd._, asserts that this celebrated prose was first introduced into the Venice editions of the Missals printed for the Dominicans. The oldest _Missale Prædicatorum_ which I possess, or have an opportunity of seeing, is a copy of the Parisian impression of the year 1519; and herein the _Dies iræ_ is inserted in the _Commemoratio Defunctorum_; mens. Novemb. sig. M. 5.

An inquiry remains as to the date of the general adoption of this sequence by the Roman Church. In Quetif and Echard (_Scriptt. Ord. Præd._ i. 437.), under the name of Latinus Malabranca, we read that it certainly was not in use in the year 1255; and there does not appear to be the slightest evidence of its admission, even upon private authority, into the office for the dead anterior to the commencement of the fifteenth century.

Your correspondent was not mistaken in his belief that he had met with an imperfect transcript of this prose, for the original consists not of "twenty-seven," but of _fifty-seven_ lines. I may add that I do not remember to have found the text more correctly given than in the beautiful folio missal of the church of Augsburg, partly printed on vellum in 1555 (fol. 466. b.).

R.G.

The _Dies Iræ_ is truly said by Mr. SPARROW SIMPSON (Vol. ii., p. 72.) to be an extremely beautiful hymn. Who was its author is very doubtful, but the probabilities are in favour of Thomas de Celano, a Minorite friar, who lived during the second half of the fourteenth century. It consists of nineteen strophes, each having three lines. Bartholomew of Pisa, A.D. 1401, in his _Liber Conformitatum_, speaks of it; but the earliest printed book in which I have ever seen this hymn, is the _Missale Romanum_, printed at Pavia, A.D. 1491, in 8vo., a copy of which I have in my possession.

D. ROCK.

Buckland, Faringdon.

* * * * *

DR. SAMUEL OGDEN.

In reply to your correspondent TWYFORD (Vol. ii., p. 73.), the original of the common surname _Ogden_ is doubtless Oakden. A place so called is situated in Butterworth, Lancashire, and gave name to a family,--possibly extinct in the sixteenth century. A clergymam, whose name partook both of the original and its corruption, was vicar of Bradford, 1556, viz Dus Tho. _Okden_. The arms and crest borne by the Oakdens were both allusive to the name, certainly without any reference to King Charles's hiding-place.

Dr. Samuel Ogden, born in 1716 at Winchester, was the son of Thomas Ogden, a man of very humble origin: but he had the merit of giving a liberal education to one whose natural talents well deserved culture; and both his parents, in the decline of life, owed their support to Ogden's filial piety and affection. Cole is quite mistaken in fixing the father's residence at Mansfield, and in stating that he had been in the army. The monument, spoken of by Cole, is not at Mansfield, but in the cathedral of Manchester: nor is it a memorial of Dr. Ogden. It was placed by him in memory of his _father_. Ogden was buried in his own church, St. Sephlchre's, Cambridge.

The following epigram, it is believed, has not been printed. It is transcribed from a letter in my possession, addressed by the first Lord Alvanley, when at college, to his former tutor, Mr. Thyer, editor of _Butler's Remains_:--