Chapter 3

In book iv., the description of the country girl, who dresses above her condition, concludes with the following lines--

"Expect her soon with footboy at her heels, No longer blushing for her awkward load, Her train and her umbrella all her care."

In both these passages of Cowper, the umbrella appears to be equivalent to what would now be called a parasol.

L.

_Pope and Bishop Burgess_ (Vol. ii., p. 310.).--The allusion is to the passage in _Troilus and Cressida_:

"The dreadful sagitary appals our numbers."

which Theobald explained from Caxton, but Pope did not understand.

C.B.

[Not the only passage in Shakspeare which Theobald explained and Pope did not understand; but more of this hereafter.]

_Book of Homilies_ (Vol. ii., p. 89.).--Allow me to inform B. that the early edition of Homilies {347} referred to in his Query was compiled by Richard Taverner, and consists of a series of "postils" on the epistles and gospels throughout the year. It appears to have been first printed in 1540 (_Ames_, i. 407.), and was republished in 1841, under the editorial care of Dr. Cardwell.

C.H.

St. Catharine's Hall, Cambridge.

_Roman Catholic Theology_ (Vol. ii., p. 279.).--I beg to refer M.Y.A.H. to the _Church History of England_ by Hugh Tootle, better known by his pseudonyme of Charles Dod (3 vols. folio, Brussels, 1737-42). A very valuable edition of this important work was commenced by the Rev. M.A. Tierney; but as the last volume (the fifth) was published so long ago as 1843, and no symptom of any other appears, I presume that this extremely curious book has, for some reason or other, been abandoned. Perhaps the well-known jealousy of the censor may have interfered.

A useful manual of Catholic bibliography exists in the _Thesaurus Librorum Rei Catholicæ_, 8vo. Würzburg, 1850.

G.R.

_Modum Promissionis_ (Vol. ii., p. 279.).--Without the context of the passage adduced by C.W.B., it is impossible to speak positively as to its precise signification. I think, however, the phrase is equivalent to "formula professionis monasticæ." _Promissio_ frequently occurs in this sense, as may be seen by referring to Ducange (s.v.).

C.H.

_Bacon Family_ (Vol. ii., p. 247.).--The name of Bacon has been considered to be of Norman origin, arising from some fief so called.--See _Roman de Rose_, vol. ii. p. 269.

X.P.M.

_Execution of Charles I. and Earl of Stair_ (Vol. ii., pp. 72. 140. 158.).--MATFELONENSIS speaks too fast when he says that "no mention occurs of the Earl of Stair." I distinctly recollect reading in an old life of the Earl of Stair an account of his having been sent for to visit a mysterious person of extreme old age, who stated that he was the earl's ancestor (grandfather or great-grandfather, but whether paternal or not I do not remember), and that he had been the executioner of Charles I.

T.N.

[The story to which our correspondent alludes is, probably, that quoted in Cecil's (Hone's) _Sixty Curious and Authentic Narratives_, pp. 138-140., from the _Recreations of a Man of Feeling_. The peerage and the pedigree of the Stair family alike prove that there is little foundation for this ingenious fiction.]

_Water-marks on Writing-paper_ (Vol. ii., p. 310.).--On this subject C., will, I think, find all the information he seeks in a paper published in the _Aldine Magazine_, (Masters, Aldersgate-st., 1839). This paper is accompanied by engravings of the ancient water-marks, as well as those of more modern times, and enters somewhat largely into the question of how far water-marks may be considered as evidence of precise dates. They are not always to be relied upon, for in December, 1850, there will doubtless be thousands of reams of paper issued and in circulation, bearing the date of 1851, unless the practice is altered of late years. Timperley's _Biographical, Chronological, and Historical Dictionary_ is much quoted on the subject of "Water-marks."

E.B. PRICE.

_St. John Nepomuc_ (Vol. ii., pp. 209. 317.).--The statues in honour of this Saint must be familiar to every one who has visited Bohemia, as also the spot of his martyrdom at Prague, indicated by some brass stars let into the parapet of the _Steinerne Brücke_, on the right-hand side going from Prague to the suburb called the _Kleinseite_. As the story goes, he was offered the most costly bribes by _Wenzel_, king of Bohemia, to betray his trust, and after his repeated refusal was put to the torture, and then thrown into the Moldau, where he was drowned. The body of the saint was embalmed, and is now preserved in a costly silver shrine of almost fabulous worth, in the church of St. Veit, in the Kleinseite. In Weber's _Briefe eines durch Deutschland reisende Deutschen_, the weight silver about this shrine is said to be twenty "centener."

C.D. LAMONT.

_Satirical Medals_ (Vol. ii., p. 298.).--A descriptive catalogue of British medals is preparing for the press, wherein all the satirical medals relating to the Revolution of 1688 will be minutely described and explained.

G.H.

_Passage in Gray_ (Vol. i., p. 150.).--I see no difficulty in the passage about which your correspondent; A GRAYAN inquires. The _abode_ of the merits and frailties of the dead, _i.e._ the place in which they are treasured up until the Judgment, is the Divine mind. This the poet, by a very allowable figure, calls "Bosom." Homer's expression is somewhat analogous.

[Greek: "Tade panta theion en gounasi keitai."]

E.C.H.

_Cupid Crying_ (Vol. i., pp. 172. 308.).--Another translation of the English verses, p. 172., which English are far superior to the Latin original:--

"Perchi ferisce Venere Il filio suo che geme? Diede il fanciullo a Celia Le freccie e l'arco insieme.

Sarebbe mai possibile! Ei nol voluto avea; Ma rise Celia; ei subito La Madre esser credea."

E.C.H. {348}

_Anecdote of a Peal of Bells_ (Vol. i., p. 382.).--It is related of the bells of Limerick Cathedral by Mrs. S.C. Hall (_Ireland_, vol. i., p. 328. note).

M.

[Another correspondent, under the same signature, forwards the legend as follows

"THOSE EVENING BELLS."

"The remarkably fine bells of Limerick Cathedral were originally brought from Italy. They had been manufactured by a young native (whose name tradition has not preserved), and finished after the toil of many years; and he prided himself upon his work. They were subsequently purchased by a prior of a neighbouring convent, and, with the profits of this sale, the young Italian procured a little villa, where he had the pleasure of hearing the tolling of his bells from the convent cliff, and of growing old in the bosom of domestic happiness. This, however, was not to continue. In some of those broils, whether civil or foreign, which are the undying worm in the peace of a fallen land, the good Italian was a sufferer amongst many. He lost his all; and after the passing of the storm, he found himself preserved alone, amid the wreck of fortune, friends, family, and home. The convent in which the bells, the chef-d'oeuvre of his skill, were hung, was rased to the earth, and these last carried away to another land. The unfortunate owner, haunted by his memories and deserted by his hopes, became a wanderer over Europe. His hair grew gray, and his heart withered, before he again found a home and friend. In this desolation of spirit he formed the resolution of seeking the place to which those treasures of his memory had finally been borne. He sailed for Ireland, proceeded up the Shannon; the vessel anchored in the pool near Limerick, and he hired a small boat for the purpose of landing. The city was now before him; and he beheld St. Mary's steeple lifting its turreted head above the smoke and mist of the old town. He sat in the stern, and looked fondly towards it. It was an evening so calm and beautiful as to remind him of his own native haven in the sweetest time of the year--the death of spring. The broad stream appeared like one smooth mirror, and the little vessel glided through it with almost a noiseless expedition. On a sudden, amid the general stillness, the bells tolled from the cathedral; the rowers rested on their oars, and the vessel went forward with the impulse it had received. The old Italian looked towards the city, crossed his arms on his breast, and lay back on his seat; home, happiness, early recollections, friends, family--all were in the sound, and went with it to his heart. When the rowers looked round, they beheld him with his face still turned towards the cathedral, but his eyes were closed, and when they landed they found him cold in death."

MR. H. EDWARDS informs us it appeared in an early number of _Chambers' Journal._ J.G.A.P. kindly refers us to the _Dublin Penny Journal_, vol. i. p. 48., where the story is also told; and to a poetical version of it, entitled "The Bell-founder," first printed in the _Dublin University Magazine_, and since in the collected poems of the author, D. H. McCarthy.]

_Codex Flateyensis_ (Vol. ii., p. 278.).--Your correspondent W.H.F., when referring to the _Orkneyinga Saga_, requests information regarding the _Codex Flateyensis_, in which is contained one of the best MSS. of the Saga above mentioned. W.H.F. labours under the misapprehension of regarding the _Codex Flateyensis_ as a mere manuscript of the Orkneyinga Saga, whereas that Saga constitutes but a very small part of the magnificent volume. The _Codex Flateyensis_ takes its name, as W.H.F. rightly concludes, from the island of Flatey in the Breidafiord in Iceland, where it was long preserved. It is a parchment volume most beautifully executed, the initial letters of the chapters being finely illuminated, and extending in many instances, as in a fac-simile now before me, from top to bottom of the folio page. The contents of the volume may be learned from the following lines on the first page; I give it in English as the original is in Icelandic:--

"John Hakonson owns this book, herein first are written verses, then how Norway was colonised, then of Erik the Far-travelled, thereafter of Olaf Tryggvason the king with all his deeds, and next is the history of Olaf Haraldson, the saint, and of his deeds, _and therewith the history of the earls of Orkney_, then is there Sverrers Saga; thereafter the Saga of Hakon the Old, with the Saga of Magnus the king, his son, then the deeds of Einar Sokkeson of Greenland, and next of Elga and Ulf the Bad; and then begin the annals from the creation of the world to the present year. John Thordarson the priest wrote the portion concerning Erik the Far-travelled, and the Sagas of both the Olaves; but Magnus Thorhallson the priest has written all that follows, as well as all that preceded, and has illuminated all (the book). Almighty God and the holy virgin mary give joy to those who wrote and to him who dictated."

A little further on we learn from the text that when the book began to be written there had elapsed from the birth of Christ 1300 and 80 and 7 years. The volume was, therefore, commenced in 1387, and finished, as we judge from the year at which the annals cease, in 1395. The death of Hakon Hakonson is recorded in the last chapters of the Saga of that name, which we see is included in the list of those contained in the _Codex Flateyensis_.

E. CHARLTON.

Newcastle-on-Tyne, Oct. 6. 1850.

_Paying through the Nose, and Etymology of Shilling_ (Vol. i., p. 335.).--Odin, they say, laid a nose-tax on ever Swede,--a penny a nose. (Grimm, _Deutsche Rechts Alterthümer_, p. 299.) I think people not able to pay forfeited "the prominence on the face, which is the organ of scent, and emunctory of the brain," as good Walker says. It was according to the rule, "Qui non habet in ære, luat in pelle." Still we "count" or "tell noses," when computing, for instance, how many persons of the company are to pay the reckoning. The expression is used in England, if I am rightly informed, as well as in Holland. {349}

Tax money was gathered into a brass shield, and the jingling (_schel_) noise it produced, gave to the pieces of silver exacted the name of _schellingen_ (shillings). Saxo-Grammaticus, lib viii. p. 267., citatus apud Grimm, l. 1. p. 77. The reference is too curious not to note it down:--

"Huic (Fresiæ) Gotricus nom tam arctam, quam inusitatam pensionem imposuit, de cujus conditione et modo summatim referam. Primum itaque ducentorum quadraginta pedum longitudinem habentis ædificii structura disponitur, bis senis distincta spatiis, quorum quodlibet vicenorum pedum intercapedine tenderetur, prædictæ quantitatis summam totalis spatii dispendio reddente. In hujus itaque ædis capite regio considente quæstore, sub extremam ejus partem _rotundus_ e regione _elipeus_ exhibetur. Fresonibus igitur tributum daturis mos erat singulos nummos in hujus _scuti cavum_ conjicere, e quibus eos duntaxat in censum regium ratio computantis eligeret, qui eminus exatoris aures clarioris soni crepitaculo perstrinxissent quo evenit, ut id solum æs quæstor in fiscum supputando colligeret, cujus casum remotiore auris indicio persensisset, cujus vero obscurior sonus citra computantis defuisset auditum, recipiebatur quidem in fiscum (!!!), sed nullum summæ præstabat augmentum. Compluribus igitur nummorum jactibus quæstorias aures nulla sensibili sonoritate pulsantibus, accidit, ut statam pro se stipem erogaturi multam interdum æris partem inani pensione consumerent, cujus tributi onere per Karolum postea liberati produntur."

JANUS DOUSA.

Huis te Manpadt.

_Small Words_ (Vol. ii., p. 305.).--Some of your correspondents have justly recommended correctness in the references to authorities cited. Allow me to suggest the necessity of similar care in quotations. If K.J.P.B.T. had taken the pains to refer to the passage in Pope which he criticises (Vol. ii., p. 305.), he would have spared himself some trouble, and you considerable space. The line is not, as he puts it, "And ten _small_ words," but--

"And ten _low_ words oft creep in one dull line."

a difference which deprives his remarks of much of their applicability.

[Greek: PH.]

_Bilderdijk the Poet_ (Vol. ii., p. 309.).--There are several letters from Southey, in his _Life and Correspondence_, written while under the roof of Bilderdijk, giving a very agreeable account of the poet, his wife, and his family.

[Greek: PH.]

_Fool or a Physician_ (Vol. i., p. 137.; vol. ii., p. 315.).--The writer who has used this expression is Dr. Cheyne, and he probably altered it from the alliterative form, "a man is a fool or a physician at forty," which I have frequently heard in various parts of England. Dr. Cheyne's words are: "I think every man is a fool or a physician at thirty years of age, (that is to say), by that time he ought to know his own constitution, and unless he is determined to live an intemperate and irregular life, I think he may by diet and regimen prevent or cure any _chronical_ disease; but as to _acute_ disorders no one who is not well acquainted with medicine should trust to his own skill."

Dr. Cheyne was a medical writer of the last century.

A. G----T.

_Wat the Hare_ (Vol. ii., p. 315.).--In the interesting, though perhaps somewhat partial, account of the unsuccessful siege of Corfe Castle, during the civil wars of the seventeenth century, which is given in the _Mercurius Rusticus_, there is an anecdote which will give a reply to the Query of your correspondent K. The commander of the Parliamentarian forces was Sir Walter Erle; and it was a great joke with his opponents that the pass-word of "Old Wat" had been given (by himself I believe) on the night of his last assault on the castle. The chronicler informs us that "Old Wat" was the usual notice of a hare being found sitting; and the proverbial timidity of that animal suggested some odious comparisons with the defeated general.

I have not the book at hand, but I am pretty sure that the substance of my information is correct.

C.W. BINGHAM.

Bingham's Melcombe, Blandford.

_Law Courts at St. Albans_ (Vol. i., p. 366.).--Although unable to answer [Greek: S.], perhaps I may do him service by enabling him to put his Query more correctly. The disease which drove the lawyers from London in the 6th year of Elizabeth (1563) was not the _sweating sickness_ (which has not returned since the reign of Edward VI.), but a plague brought into England by the late garrison of Havre de Grâce. And it was at _Hertford_ that Candlemas term was kept on the occasions. See Heylyn, _Hist. Ref._, ed. Eccl. Hist. Soc. ii. 401.

J.C.R.

_The Troubles at Frankfort_ (Vol. i., p. 379.).--In Petheram's edition of this work, it is shown that Whittingham, dean of Durham, was most likely the author. That Coverdale was not, appears from the circumstance that the writer had been a party in the "Troubles," whereas Coverdale did not reside at Frankfort during any part of his exile.

J.C.R.

_Standing during the Reading of the Gospel_ (Vol. ii., p. 246.).--

"Apostolica auctoritate mandamus, dum sancta Evangelia in Ecclesia recitantur, ut Sacerdotes, et cæteri omnes presentes, non sedentes, sed venerabiliter curvi, in conspectu Evangelii stantes Dominica verba intente audiant, et fideliter adorent."--Anastasius, i., apud _Grat. Decret. De Consecrat. Dist._, ii. cap. 68.

J. BE. {350}

_Scotch Prisoners at Worcester_ (Vol. ii., p. 297.).--I cannot think that the extract from the accounts of the churchwardens of St. Margaret's, Westminster, at all justifies C.F.S. in supposing that the Scotch prisoners were massacred in cold blood. The total number of these prisoners was 10,000. Of the 1,200 who were buried, the greater part most probably died of their wounds; and though this number is large, yet we must bear in mind that in those days the sick and wounded were not tended with the care and attention which are now displayed in such cases. We learn from the _Parliamentary History_ (xx. 58.), that on the 17th Sep. 1651, "the Scots prisoners were brought to London, and marched through the city into Tothill-fields." The same work (xx. 72.) states that "Most of the common soldiers were sent to the English Plantations; and 1500 of them were granted to the Guiney merchants and sent to work in the Gold mines there." Large numbers were also employed in draining the great level of the Fens (Wells, _History of the Bedford Level_, i. 228-244.). Lord Clarendon (book xiii.) says, "Many perished for want of food, and, being enclosed in little room till they were sold to the plantations for slaves, they died of all diseases."

C.H. COOPER.

Cambridge, Oct. 5. 1850.

_Scotch Prisoners at Worcester._--The following is Rapin's account of the disposition of these prisoners, and even this statement he seems to doubt. (Vol. ii. p. 585.)

"It is pretended, of the Scots were slain [at Worcester] about 2000, and seven or eight thousand taken prisoners, who being sent to London, were sold for slaves to the plantations of the American isles."--Authorities referred to: Phillips, p. 608., Clarendon, iii. p. 320., Burnet's _Mem._ p. 432.

J.C.B.

"_Antiquitas Sæculi Juventus Mundi_" (Vol. ii., p. 218.).--A learned friend, who although involved in the avocations of an active professional career, delights "inter sylvas Academi quærere verum," has favoured me with the following observation on these words:--"That the phrase _Antiquitas sæculi juventus mundi_ is in Italics in Bacon's work does not, in my opinion, prove it to be a quotation, any more than the words _ordine retrogrado_ in the subsequent passage. Italics were used in Bacon's time, and long afterwards, to to mark not only quotations, but emphatic words, [Greek: gnômai], and epigrammatic sentences, of which you will every where see instances. I have not the original edition of the work, but we have here[5] the rare translation into English by Gilbert Wats, Oxford, 1640, folio, through which the references to authors are given in the margin; but there is no reference appended to this passage. I cannot of course decide positively that the phrase is not a quotation, but I incline to the opinion that it is not. It may be an adaptation of some proverbial expression; but I prefer believing that it is Bacon's own mode of expressing that the present times are more ancient (_i.e._ full of years) than the earliest, and thus to show that the respect we entertain for authority is unfounded."

Coleridge was of the same opinion (Introd. to _Encycl. Metrop._, p. 19.). Had the phrase been a quotation, would not Bacon have said, "Sanè ut vere _dictum est_," rather than "Ut vere _dicamus_."

T.J.

[Footnote 5: Primate Marsh's library, St. Patrick's, Dublin, which contains about 18,000 volumes, including the entire collection of Stillingfleet, Bishop of Worcester.]

_The Lass of Richmond Hill_ (Vol. ii., p. 103.)--In reply to QUÆRO, I beg to say that he will find the words of the above song in the _Morning Herald_ of August 1, 1789, a copy of which I possess. It is here described as a "favourite song, sung by Mr. Incledon at Vauxhall; composed by Mr. Hook."

J.B.

Walworth.

* * * * *

MISCELLANEOUS.

NOTES ON BOOKS, SALES, CATALOGUES, ETC.

The importance of Winchelsea as a convenient port for communication with France, from the time of the Conquest to the close of the fifteenth century, having led to a wish for a more extended history of that town than is to be found in any work relating either to the Cinque Ports or to the county of Sussex, Mr. Durrant Cooper determined to gather together the existing materials for such a history as a contribution to the Sussex Archæological Society. The industry, however, with which Mr. Cooper prosecuted his search after original records and other materials connected with the town and its varied history, was rewarded by the discovery of so many important documents as to render it impossible to carry out his original intention. The present separate work, entitled _The History of Winchelsea, one of the Ancient Towns added to the Cinque Ports_, is the result of this change; and the good people of Winchelsea have now to thank Mr. Cooper for a history of it, which has been as carefully prepared as it has been judiciously executed. Mr. Cooper has increased the amusement and information to be derived from his volume, by the manner in which he has contrived to make transactions of great historical importance illustrate his narrative of events of merely local interest.

The new edition of the _Pictorial Shakspeare_ which Mr. Charles Knight has just commenced under the title of the "National Edition" cannot, we think, prove other than a most successful attempt to circulate among all classes, but especially among readers of comparatively small means, a cheap, well-edited, and beautifully illustrated edition of the works of our great poet. The text of the present edition is not printed, {351} like of its precursor, in double columns, but in a distinct and handsome type extending across the page; and as there is no doubt the notes will be revised so as to incorporate the amendments and elucidations of the text, which have appeared from our Colliers, Hunters, &c., since the _Pictorial Shakspeare_ was first published, there can be little doubt but that this _National Edition_ will meet with a sale commensurate with the taste and enterprise of its editor and publisher, Mr. Knight.

We have received the following Catalogues:--W. Waller and Son's (188. Fleet Street) Catalogue Part III. for 1850 of Choice Books at remarkably low prices, in the best condition; John Petheram's (94. High Holborn) Catalogue