Chapter 2

I beg to suggest a few observations for the improvement of works of this description through your valuable channel.

I. I submit that none of the dictionaries of reference now specified should be published without promise of a _periodical supplement_ every five or seven years, containing later matter and intelligence. For example, how easily could this be given in the case of a Biographical Dictionary! Say that such a work has been published in 1830 (which, it is believed, is the date of Gorton's excellent _Biographical Dictionary_), the compiler of a supplement has only to collect and arrange monthly or annual obituaries of the common magazines since 1830 to make a good and useful supplemental volume.

II. I would suggest to skilful authors and booksellers publishing Biographical Dictionaries to follow the French and American custom of including in them the more eminent _contemporary_ living characters. That would add greatly to the use of the book; and the matter could easily be collected from the current Books of Peerage and Parliamentary Companions, with aid from the numerous magazines as to distinguished literary men.

III. The supplements for Gazetteers could be easily compiled from the _parliamentary papers_ and magazines of the day. I would refer particularly to the supplements published by Mr. McCulloch to his _Commercial Dictionary_ as an example to be followed; while the conduct lately adopted in the new edition of Maunder's _Biographical Treasury_ should be avoided. The old edition of that collection consisted of 839 pages, and it is believed it was _stereotyped_. A new edition, or a new issue, of the old 839 pages was lately published, the same as the original dictionary, with a supplement of 72 pages. That is not sold separately; so that the holders of the old edition must purchase the whole work a _second_ time in 1850, at 10s., to procure the supplement. The public should not encourage such a style of publication. Any one might publish a supplemental dictionary since 1836, which would equally serve with the old edition. This hint is particularly addressed to Mr. Charles Knight.

These hints are offered to the publishers and encouragers of _popular_ works for general readers, at economical prices; and they might be extended. For example, dictionaries of medicine for family use have great sale. Sometimes, it is believed, they are stereotyped. Why should not later practice and discoveries be published in a cheaper _supplement_, to preserve the value of the original work? Thus, in my family, I use the excellent _Cyclopædia of Popular Medicine_ published by Dr. Murray in 1842; but on looking into it for "Chloroform" and "Cod Liver Oil," no such articles are to be found, as they were not known in 1842. The skilful will find many other omissions.

IV. There might be a greater difficulty in constructing a popular commercial or statistical dictionary, at a moderate price, to be supplied with supplements at later intervals. But even as to these, there is a good model in Waterston's _Small Dictionary of Commerce_, published in 1844, which, with a supplement, might afford, for a few shillings, to give all the later information derived from the free-trade measures and extension of our colonies. Waterston's original work is advertised often for sale at 10s. or 12s., and a supplement at 3s. would bring it within the reach of the great bulk of readers.

These suggestions are offered without the slightest intention to depreciate or disparage the greater and more elaborate works of Mr. McCulloch, and others who compile and publish works worthy of reference, and standards of authority among men of highest science. No man who can afford it would ever be without the latest edition (without the aid of supplements) of large works; but it is manifest that there has been a great neglect to supply the mass of readers in ordinary circumstances with books of common reference, at moderate prices; and I hope that some publishers of enterprise and sagacity will see it to be their interest to act on the advice now offered.

PHILANTHROPOS.

* * * * *

RIB, WHY THE FIRST WOMAN FORMED FROM.

Allow me to request a place for the following curious and quaint exposition of the propriety of the selection of _the rib_ as the material out of which our first mother Eve was formed; and the ingenious illustration which it is made to afford of the relation between wife and husband. {214}

"Thirdly, God so ordered the matter betwixt them, that this adhæsion and agglutination of one to the other should be perpetuall. For by taking a bone from the man (who was _nimium osseus_, exceeded and was somewhat monstrous, by one bone too much) to strengthen the woman, and by putting flesh in steede thereof to mollifie the man, he made a sweete complexion and temper betwixt them, like harmony in musicke, for their amiable cohabitation.

"Fourthly, that bone which God tooke from the man, was from out the midst of him. As Christ wrought saluation _in medio terræ_, so God made the woman _è medio viri_, out of the very midst of man. The _species_ of the bone is exprest to be _costa_, a rib, a bone of the side, not of the head: a woman is not _domina_, the ruler; nor of any anterior part; she is not _prælata_, preferred before the man; nor a bone of the foote; she is not _serva_, a handmaid; nor of any hinder part; she is not _post-posita_, set behind the man: but a bone of the _side_, of a middle and indifferent part, to show that she is _socia_, a companion to the husband. For _qui junguntur lateribus, socii sunt_, they that walke side to side and cheeke to cheeke, walke as companions.

"Fifthly, I might adde, a bone from vnder the arme, to put the man in remembrance of protection and defense to the woman.

"Sixthly, a bone not far from his heart to put him in minde of dilection and loue to the woman. Lastly, a bone from the left side, to put the woman in minde, that by reason of her frailty and infirmity she standeth in need of both the one and the other from her husband.

"To conclude my discourse, if these things be duely examined when man taketh a woman to wife, _reparat latus suum_, what doth he else but remember the maime that was sometimes made in his side, and desireth to repaire it? _Repetit costam suam_, he requireth and fetcheth back the rib that was taken from him," &c. &c.--From pp. 28, 30, of "_Vitis Palatina_, A sermon appointed to be preached at Whitehall, upon Tuesday after the marriage of the Ladie Elizabeth, her Grace, by the B. of London. London: printed for John Bill, 1614."

The marriage actually took place on the 14th of February, 1612. In the dedication to the Prince of Wales, afterwards Charles I., the Bishop (Dr. John King) hints that he had delayed the publication till the full meaning of his text, which is Psalm xxviii. ver. 3, should have been accomplished by the birth of a son, an event which had been recently announced, and that, too, on the very day when this Psalm occurred in the course of the Church service.

The sermon is curious, and I may hereafter trouble you with some notices of these "Wedding Sermons," which are evidently contemplated by the framers of our Liturgy, as the concluding homily of the office for matrimony is by the Rubric to be read "if there be no sermon." It is observable that the first Rubric especially directs that the woman shall stand on the man's left hand. Any notices on the subject from your correspondents would be acceptable.

In the first series of Southey's _Common Place Book_, at page 226., a passage is quoted from Henry Smith's _Sermons_, which dwells much upon the formation of the woman from _the rib_ of man, but not in such detail as Bishop King has done. Notices of the Bishop may be found in Keble's edition of _Hooker_, vol. ii. pp. 24, 100, 103. It appears that after his death it was alleged that he maintained Popish doctrines. This his son, Henry King, canon of St. Paul's, and Archdeacon of Colchester, satisfactorily disproved in a sermon at Paul's Cross, and again in the dedication prefixed to his "_Exposition upon the Lord's Prayer_," 4to., London, 1634. See Wood's _Athenæ Oxon._, fol. edit. vol. ii. p. 294.

As for the marriage of the Princess Elizabeth, afterwards celebrated for her misfortunes as Queen of Bohemia, it was celebrated in an epithalamium by Dr. Donne, _Works_, 8vo. edit. vol. vi. p. 550. And in the Somer's _Tracts_, vol. iii., pp. 35, 43., may be found descriptions of the "_shewes_," and a poem of Taylor the Water Poet, entitled "Heaven's Blessing and Earth's Joy," all tending to show the great contemporary interest which the event occasioned.

Balliolensis.

* * * * *

MINOR NOTES

_Cinderella, or the Glass Slipper._--Two centuries ago furs were so rare, and therefore so highly valued, that the wearing of them was restricted by several sumptuary laws to kings and princes. Sable, in those laws called _vair_, was the subject of countless regulations: the exact quality permitted to be worn by persons of different grades, and the articles of dress to which it might be applied, were defined most strictly. Perrault's tale of _Cinderella_ originally marked the dignity conferred on her by the fairy by her wearing a slipper of _vair_, a privilege then confined to the highest rank of princesses. An error of the press, now become inveterate, changed _vair_ into _verre_, and the slipper of _sable_ was suddenly converted into a _glass_ slipper.

Jarltzberg.

_Mistletoe on Oaks._--In Vol. ii., p. 163., I observed a citation on the extreme rarity of _mistletoe on oaks_, from Dr. Giles and Dr. Daubeny; and with reference to it, and to some remarks of Professor Henslow in the _Gardeners' Chronicle_, I communicated to the latter journal, last week, the fact of my having, at this present time, a bunch of that plant growing in great luxuriance on an oak aged upwards of seventy years.

I beg leave to repeat it for the use of your work, and to add, what I previously appended as likely to be interesting to the archæologist of Wales or the Marches, that the oak bearing it stands about half a mile N.W. of my residence here, on the earthen mound of Badamscourt, once a moated {215} mansion of the Herberts, or Ab-Adams, of Beachley adjacent, and of Llanllowell.

George Ormerod.

Sedbury Park, Chepstow.

_Omnibuses._--It may be interesting to your readers at a future time to know when these vehicles, the use of which is daily extending, were introduced into this country; perhaps, therefore, you will allow me to state how the fact is. Mr. C. Knight, in his _Volume of Varieties_, p. 178., observes:

"The Omnibus was tried about 1800, with four horses and six wheels; but we refused to accept it in any shape till we imported the fashion from Paris in 1830."

And Mr. Shillibeer, of the City Road, the inventor of the patent funeral carriage, in his evidence before the Board of Health on the general scheme for extra-mural sepulture, incidentally mentions that he

"Had had much experience in cheapening vehicular transit, having originated and established the Omnibus in England."--_Report_, p. 124., 8vo. ed.

Arun.

_Havock._--Havock is a term in our ancient English military laws: the use of it was forbidden among the soldiery by the army regulations of those days; so in the Ordinances des Batailles in the ninth year of Richard II, art. x.:

"Item, que nul soit si hardi de crier havoick sur peine d'avoir la teste coupe."

This was properly a punishable offence in soldiers; havock being the cry of mutual encouragement to general massacre, unlimited slaughter, that no quarter should be given, &c. A tract on "The office of the constable and Mareshall in the tyme of Warre," contained in the black book of the Admiralty, has this passage:

"Also, that no man be so hardy to crye havock upon peyne that he that is begynner shall be deede therefore: and the remanent that doo the same, or follow, shall lose their horse and harneis ... and his body in prison at the king's will."

And this appears to answer well to the original term, which is taken from the ravages committed by a troop of wild beasts, wolves, lions, &c., falling on a flock of sheep. But some think it was originally a hunting term, importing the letting loose a pack of hounds. Shakspeare combines both senses:

"Cry havock! and let slip the dogs of war."

In a copy of Johnson's _Dictionary_ before me, I find

"HAVOCK (haroc, Sax.), waste; wide and general devastation." _Spenser_.

"HAVOCK, _interj_, a word of encouragement to slaughter." _Shakspeare_.

"TO HAVOCK, _v. a._, to waste; to destroy; to lay waste." _Spenser_.

Jarltzberg.

_Schlegel on Church Property in England._--Fr. Schlegel, in his _Philosophy of History_, says, p. 403., "in England and Sweden church property remained inviolate:" what the case may be in Sweden I do not know, but it appears strange that a man of such general knowledge as F. Schlegel should make such an assertion as regards England.

S.N.

* * * * *

QUERIES.

P. MATHIEU'S LIFE OF SEJANUS.

In a letter from Southey to his friend Bedford, dated Nov. 11, 1821 (_Life and Correspondence_, vol. v. p. 99.), he desires him to inform Gifford that

"In a volume of tracts at Lowther, of Charles I.'s time, I found a life of Sejanus by P.M., by which initials some hand, apparently as old as the book, had written Philip Massinger. I did not read the tract, being too keenly in pursuit of other game; but I believe it had a covert aim at Buckingham. I have not his Massinger, and, therefore, do not know whether he is aware that this was ever ascribed to that author; if he is not, he will be interested in the circumstance, and may think it worthy of further inquiry."

As others may be led by this hint to enter on such an inquiry, I would suggest that it may save much trouble if they first satisfy themselves that the _Life of Sejanus_ by P. Mathieu may not have been the tract which fell in Southey's way. It is to be found in a volume entitled

"_Unhappy Prosperity_, expressed in the History of Ælius Selanus and Philippa the _Catanian_, with observations upon the fall of Sejanus. Lastly, Certain Considerations upon the life and Services of _Monsieur_ Villeroy, translated out of the original [French] by _S'r T. H._[_awkins_], _second edition_, 12'o. London, 1639."

This was just eleven years after Buckingham met his fate at the hands of Felton. How long the interval between the first and this, the second edition, may have been, I cannot tell. Nor do I know enough of the politics of the time to determine whether anything can be inferred from the fact that the translation is dedicated to William Earl of Salisbury, or to warrant me in saying that these illustrations of the fate of royal favourites may have been brought before the English public with any view to the case of George Villiers. A passage, however, in Mathieu's dedication of the original "to the king," seems to render it not improbable, certainly not inapplicable:

"You (Sir) shall therein [in this history] behold, that _a prince ought to be very carefull to conserve his authority entire. Great ones_ [court favourites] _here may learne_, it is not good to play with the generous {216} Lyon though he suffer it, and that _favours are precipices for such as abuse them_."

Having referred to this work of Mathieu's, I shall feel obliged to any of your correspondents who will favour me with a notice of it, or of the author.

Balliolensis.

* * * * *

THE ANTIQUITY OF SMOKING.

I feel much interested in the Query of your correspondent Z.A.Z. (Vol. ii., p. 41.) I had a "Query" something similar, with a "Note" on it, lying by me for some time, which I send you as they stand.--Was not smoking in use in England and other countries before the introduction of tobacco? Whitaker says, a few days after the tower of Kirkstall Abbey fell, 1779, he

"Discovered imbedded in the mortar of the fallen fragments several little smoking pipes, such as were used in the reign of James I. for tobacco; a proof of a fact _which has not been recorded_, that, prior to the introduction of that plant from America, the practice of inhaling the smoke of some indigenous plant or vegetable prevailed in England." (_Loidis and Elmete_.)

Allowing, then, pipes to have been coeval with the erection of Kirkstall, we find them to have been used in England about 400 years before the introduction of tobacco. On the other hand, as Dr. Whitaker says, we find _no record_ of their being used, or of smoking being practised; and it is almost inconceivable that our ancestors should have had such a practice, without any allusion being made to it by any writers. As to the antiquity of smoking in Ireland, the first of Irish antiquaries, the learned and respected Dr. Petrie, says:

"The custom of smoking is of much greater antiquity in Ireland than the introduction of tobacco into Europe. Smoking pipes made of bronze are frequently found in our Irish _tumuli_, or sepulchral mounds, of the most remote antiquity; and similar pipes, made of baked clay, are discovered daily in all parts of the island. A curious instance of the _bathos_ in sculpture, which also illustrates the antiquity of this custom, occurs on the monument of Donogh O'Brien, king of Thomond, who was killed in 1267, and interred in the Abbey of Corcumrac, in the co. of Clare, of which his family were the founders. He is represented in the usual recumbent posture, with the short pipe or _dudeen_ of the Irish in his mouth."

In the _Anthologia Hibernica_ for May 1793, vol. i. p. 352., we have some remarks on the antiquity of smoking "among the German and Northern nations," who, the writer says, "were clearly acquainted with, and cultivated tobacco, which they smoked through wooden and earthen tubes." He refers to Herod. lib. i. sec. 36.; Strabo, lib. vii. 296.; Pomp. Mela 2, and Solinus, c. 15.

Wherever we go, we see smoking so universal a practice, and people "taking to it so naturally," that we are inclined to believe that it was always so; that our first father enjoyed a quiet puff now and then; (that, like a poet, man "nascitur non fit" a smoker); and that the soothing power of this narcotic tranquillised the soul of the aquatic patriarch, disturbed by the roar of billows and the convulsions of nature, and diffused its peaceful influence over the inmates of the ark. Yes, we are tempted to spurn the question, When and where was smoking introduced? as being equal to When and where was _man_ introduced? Yet, as some do not consider man as a smoking animal "de natu et ab initio," the question may provoke some interesting replies from your learned correspondents.

Jarltzberg.

* * * * *

SIR GREGORY NORTON, BART.

I am desirous to be informed of the date and particulars of the above baronetcy having been created. In _The Mystery of the good old Cause briefly unfolded_ (1660), it is stated, at p. 26., that Sir Gregory Norton, Bart. (one of the king's judges), had Richmond House, situated in the _Old_ Park, and much of the king's goods, for an inconsiderable value. Sir Gregory Norton has a place also in _The Loyal Martyrology_ of Winstanley (1665), p. 130.; and also in _History of the King-killers_ (1719), part 6. p. 75. It is unnecessary to refer to Noble's _Regicides_, he having simply copied the two preceding works. Sir Gregory died before the Restoration, in 1652, and escaped the vindictive executions which ensued, and was buried at Richmond in Surrey. There was a Sir _Richard_ Norton, Bart., of Rotherfield, _Hants_ (Query Rotherfield, _Sussex_, near Tunbridge Wells), who is mentioned by Sylvanus Morgan in his _Sphere of Gentry_; but he does not record a Sir Gregory. Nor does the latter occur in a perfect collection of the knights made by King James I., by J.P. (Query John Philipot?), London, Humphrey Moseley, 1660, 8vo. I have examined all the various works on extinct and dormant baronetcies ineffectually. In the _Mercurius Publicus_ of Thursday, 28th June, 1660, it appears that on the preceding Saturday the House of Commons settled the manor of Richmond, with house and materials, purchased by Sir Gregory Norton, Bart., on the queen (Henrietta Maria) as part of her jointure.

D.N.

* * * * *

MINOR QUERIES.

_City Offices._--Can any of your correspondents recommend some book which gives a good history of the different public offices of the city of London, with their duties and qualifications, and in whom the appointments are vested?

A Citizen.

_Harefinder, Meaning of._--Can any of your readers kindly give a feasible explanation of {217} phrase _harefinder_, as it occurs in _Much Ado about Nothing_, Act i. Sc. 1.? A reference to any similar term in a contemporary would be very valuable.

B.

_Saffron-bag._--Having lately read Sir E.B. Lytton's novel of _The Caxtons_--to which I must give a passing tribute of admiration--I have been a good deal puzzled, first, to ascertain the meaning, and, second, the origin of the _saffron-bag_ of which he speaks so much. I have asked many persons, and have not been able to obtain a satisfactory solution of my difficulty. Should you or any of your contributors be able, I wish you would enlighten not only me but many of my equally unlearned friends.

W.C. Luard.

_Bishop Berkley's successful Experiments._--I have somewhere read that Bishop Berkley succeeded in increasing the stature of an individual placed in his charge. Will any of your correspondents give me the details of such process, with their opinions as to the practicability of the scheme?

F.W.

_Portrait (Unknown)._--A very carefully painted portrait, on an oak panel, has been in the possession of my family for many years, and I should be much pleased if any of your correspondents could enable me to identify the personage.

The figure, which is little more than a head, is nearly the size of life, and represents an elderly man with grey hair and a long venerable beard: the dress, which is but little shown, is black. At the upper part of the panel, on the dexter side, is a shield, bearing these arms:--Argent on a fess sable between three crosses patées, Or, as many martlets of the last. Above the shield is written "In cruce glorior." I have searched in vain for those arms. On the prints published by the Society of Antiquaries, of the funeral of Abbot Islip, is one nearly similar,--the field ermine on a fess between three crosses patées, as many martlets. The colours are not shown by the engraver. A manuscript ordinary, by Glover, in my possession, contains another, which is somewhat like that on the picture, being--Argent on a fess engrailed sable, bearing three crosses patées, Gules, as many martlets on the field. This is there ascribed to "Canon George." It is very probable that the gold crosses on the white field was an error of the portrait painter.

The size of the oak panel, which is thick, is seventeen inches wide, and twenty-two in height. The motto is in a cursive hand, apparently of about the time of Edward VI.

T.W.

_Wives, Custom of Selling._--Has there ever been any foundation in law for the practice of selling of wives, which our neighbours the French persist in believing to be perfectly legal and common at the present day? What was the origin of the custom? An amusing series of "Notes" might be made, from instances in which the custom is introduced as characteristic of English manners, by French and other foreign writers.

G.L.B.