Chapter 2

Yet, with all deference to the edifying letters of this missionary jesuit, it is difficult to make such distant ends meet. It almost requires a copula like that of the fool, who, to reconcile his lord's assertion that he had with a single bullet shot a deer in the ear and the hind foot, explained that the deer was scratching his ear at the time with his foot.

Subjoined is one more _proof_ of the communication which once existed between America and the Old World:

Colomb disoit même avoir vu les restes des fourneaux de Salomon dans les mines de Cibao."--Chateaubriand, _Génie, Notes, &c_.

MANLEIUS.

_Deck of Cards._--

"The king was slily finger'd from the _deck_." _Henry VI._, pt. iii. Act v. Sc. 1.

It is well known, and properly noted, that a pack of cards was formerly called a _deck_; but it should be added that the term is still commonly used in Ireland, and from being made use of in the famed song of "De Night before Larry was stretched,"

"De deck being called for dey play'd, Till Larry found one of dem cheated,"

it seems likely to be preserved. I may add, that many words and many forms of expression which have gone out of vogue in England, or have become provincial, are still in daily use in Ireland.

J.M.B.

_Time when Herodotus wrote._--The following passage appears to me to afford strong evidence, not only that Herodotus did not complete his history till an advanced age, but that he did not _begin_ it. For in lib. i. 5. he writes: "[Greek: ta de ep' emou ên megala, proteron ên smikra]," "those cities, which in my time _were_ great, were of old small." This is certainly such an expression as none but a man advanced in years could have used. It is perhaps worth observing, that this passage occurring in the Introduction does not diminish its weight, as the events recorded in it, leading naturally into the history, could not well have been written afterwards. As I have never seen this passage noticed with this view. I shall be glad to see whether the argument which I have deduced from it appears a reasonable one to your classical readers.

A.W.H.

"_Dat veniam corvis," &c._--There were two headmasters of the school of Merchant Taylors, of the respective names of Du Guard and Stevens: the former having printed Salmasius' _Defensio Regia_, was ejected by Lord President Bradshaw; and the latter held the vacant post in the interim, from February to September, 1650. He wrote during his tenure of office in the School Probation Book."-- {406}

"Res DEUS nostras celeri citatas Turbine versat." "_Dat veniam corvis, vexat censura columbas_, Pejus merenti melior, et pejor bono."

On his restoration Du Gard pleasantly retorted,--

"Du Gardum sequitur Stephanus, Stephanumque vicissim, Du Gardus: sortes versat utrinque DEUS."

M.W.

* * * * *

QUERIES.

DRYDEN'S "ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL."

In my small library I have neither Malone's _Life of Dryden_, nor that of more recent date by Sir Walter Scott; and, possibly, either of those works would render my present Query needless. It relates to a copy of _Absalom and Achitophel_ now lying before me, which is a mere chap-book, printed on bad paper, in the most economical manner, and obviously intended to be sold at a very reasonable rate: indeed, at the bottom of the title-page, which is dated "1708," we are told that it was "Printed and sold by H. Hills, in Black-fryars, near the Water-side, _for the Benefit of the Poor_." It consists of twenty-four pages, small 8vo., and, in order that the poem should not occupy too much space, one of the pages (p. 22.) is in a smaller type, and in double columns. At the end is the following singular

"ADVERTISEMENT.

"To prevent the publicks being impos'd on, this is to give notice that the book lately published in 4to. is very imperfect and uncorrect, in so much that above thirty lines are omitted in several places, and many gross errors committed, which pervert the sense."

The above is in Italic type, and the body of the tract consists of only the first part of _Absalom and Achitophel_, as ordinarily printed: allowing for misprints (which are tolerably numerous), the poem stands very much the same as in several common editions I have at hand. My Query is, Is the work known to have been so published "for the benefit of the poor," and in order to give it greater circulation, and what is the explanation of the "Advertisement?"

THE HERMIT OF HOLYPORT.

N.B. A short "Key" follows the usual address "To the Reader."

* * * * *

MINOR QUERIES.

_Edward the Confessor's Crucifix and Gold Chain._--In 1688 Ch. Taylour published _A Narrative of the Finding St. Edward the King and Confessor's Crucifix and Gold Chain in the Abbey Church of St. Peter's, Westminster_. Are the circumstances attending this discovery well known? And where now is the crucifix and chain?

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

_The Widow of the Wood._--Benjamin Victor published in 1755 a "narrative" entitled _The Widow of the Wood_. It is said to be very rare, having been "bought up" by the Wolseleys of Staffordshire. What is the history of the publication?

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

_Cardinal Erskine._--I am anxious to obtain some information respecting Cardinal Erskine, a Scotchman, as his name would impart, but called Cardinal of England? I suppose he was elevated to the sacred college between Cardinal Howard, the last mentioned by Dodd in his _Church History_, and the Cardinal of York, the last scion of the house of Stuart.

And is the following a correct list of English Cardinals since Wolsey, who died in 1530?

Elevated in John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester 1535 Reginald Pole, Archbishop of Canterbury 1536 William Peyto, Bishop of Salisbury 1557 William Allen 1587 Philip Howard 1675 ---- Erskine ---- Henry Stuart of York 1747 Thomas Weld 1830 Charles Acton 1839 or 1842 Nicolas Wiseman, who is the 53rd 1850 on the list of English Cardinals

Both the latter were born abroad, the former at Naples, the latter at Seville; but they were born of British subjects, and were brought to England at an early age to be educated. The Cardinal of York was born in Rome; but being of the royal family of England, was always styled the Cardinal of England.

G.W.

October 26. 1850.

_Thomas Regiolapidensis._--Where can I find any information as to the saint who figures in the following curious story? _Regiolapidensis_ may probably mean _of Königstein_, in Saxony; but Albon Butler takes no notice of this Thomas.

"Incipit narratiuncula e libro vingto, cui titular _Vita atq. Gesta B. Thomæ Regiolapidensis, ex ordine FF. Prædicatorum_, excerpta.

"Quum verò prædicator indefensus, missionum ecclesiasticarum causâ, in borealibus versaretur partibus, miraculum ibi stupendum sanè patravit. Conspexit enim taurum ingentem, vaccarum (sicut poëta quidam ex ethnicis ait) 'magnâ comitante catervâ,' in prato quodam graminoso ferocientem, maceriâ tantum bassâ inter se et belluam istam horrendam interpositâ. Constitit Thomas, constitit et bos, horribiliter rugiens, caudâ erectâ, cornibus immaniter sæviens, ore spumam, naribus vaporem, oculis fulgur emittens, maceriam transsilire, in virum sanctum irruere, corpusque ejus venerabile in aëra jactitare, visibiliter nimis paratus. {407} Thomas autem, eaptâ occasione, oculos in monstrum obfirmat, signumque crucis magneticum in modum indesinenter ducere aggreditur, En portentum inauditum! geminis belluae luminibus illico palpebrae obducuntur, titubat taurus, cadit, ac, signo magnetico sopitus, primò raucum stertens, mox infantiliter placidum trahens halitum, humi pronus recumbit. Nec moratus donec hostis iste cornutus somnum excuteret, viv sanctus ad hospitium se propinquum laetus inde incolumisque recepit."

RUSTICUS.

"_Her Brow was fair._"--Can any of your many readers inform me of the author of the following lines, which I copy as I found them quoted in Dr. Armstrong's _Lectures_:

"Her brow was fair, but very pale, And looked like stainless marble; a touch methought would soil Its whiteness. On her temple, one blue vein Ran like a tendril; one through her shadowy hand Branched like the fibre of a leaf away."

J.M.B.

_Hoods warn by Doctors of Divinity of Aberdeen._--Will you allow me to inquire, through the pages of your publication, of what _colour_ and _material_ the _exterior_ and _lining_ of hoods were composed which Doctors in Divinity, who had graduated at Aberdeen, Glasgow, and St. Andrew's, prior to the Reformation, were accustomed to wear? I imagine, the same as those worn by Doctors who had graduated at Paris: but what hoods they wore I know not. I trust that some of your correspondents will enlighten me upon this subject.

LL.D.

_Irish Brigade._--Where can I find any account of the institution and history of the Irish brigade, a part of the army of France under the Bourbons?

J.D.

Bath.

_Doctrine of the Immaculate Conception._--In the charge delivered by the Bishop of London to his clergy, on the 2nd instant, the following passage occurs:

"It is not easy to say what the members of that Church [the Church of Rome] are required to believe now; it is impossible for men to foresee what they may be called upon to admit as an article of faith next year, or in any future year: for instance, till of late it was open to a Roman Catholic to believe or not, as he might see reason, the fanciful notion of the immaculate conception of the Blessed Virgin; but the present Bishop of Rome has seen fit to make it an article of their faith; and no member of his church can henceforth question it without denying the infallibility of his spiritual sovereign, and so hazarding, as it is asserted, his own salvation."

Can any of your correspondents inform me where the papal decision on this point is to be found?

L.

_Gospel Oak Tree at Kentish Town._--Can you inform me why an ancient oak tree, in a field at Kentish Town, is called the "Gospel Oak Tree." It is situated and grows in the field called the "Gospel Oak Field," Kentish Town, St. Pancras, Middlesex. Tradition says Saint Augustine, or one of the ancient Fathers of the Church, preached under its branches.

STEPHEN.

_Arminian Nunnery in Huntingdonshire._--Where can I find an account of a religious academy called the _Arminian Nunnery_, founded by the family of the FERRARS, at Little Gidding in Huntingdonshire? I have seen some MS. collections of Francis Peck on the subject, but they are formed in a bad spirit. Has not Thomas Hearne left us something about this institution?

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

_Ruding's Annotated Langbaine._--Can any of your readers inform me who possesses the copy of Langbaine's _Account of the English Dramatic Poets_ with MS. additions, and copious continuations, by the REV. ROGERS RUDING? In one of his notes, speaking of the Garrick collection of old plays, that industrious antiquary observes:

"This noble collection has lately (1784) been mutilated by tearing out such single plays as were duplicates to others in the Sloane Library. The folio editions of Shakespeare, Beaumont and Fletcher, and Jonson, have likewise been taken from it for the same reason."

This is a sad complaint against the Museum authorities of former times.

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

_Mrs. Tempest._--Can any of your correspondents give me any account of Mrs. (or, in our present style, Miss) Tempest, a young lady who died the day of the great storm in Nov., 1703, in honour of whom Pope's early friend Walshe wrote an elegiac pastoral, and invited Pope to give his "winter" pastoral "a turn to her memory." In the note on Pope's pastoral it is said that "she was of an ancient family in Yorkshire, and admired by Walshe." I have elsewhere read of her as "the celebrated Mrs. Tempest;" but I know of no other celebrity than that conferred by Walshe's pastoral; for Pope's has no special allusion to her.

C.

_Sitting cross-legged._--In an alliterative poem on Fortune (_Reliquiæ Antiquæ_, ii. p. 9.), written early in the fifteenth century, are the following lines:--

"Sitte, I say, and sethe on a semeli sete, Rygth on the rounde, on the rennyng ryng; _Caste kne over kne, as a kynge kete_, Comely clothed in a cope, crouned as a kyng."

The third line seems to illustrate those early illuminations in which kings and great personages are represented as sitting cross-legged. There are numerous examples of the A.-S. period. Was it {408} merely assumption of dignity, or was it not rather intended to ward off any evil influence which might affect the king whilst sitting, in his state? That this was a consideration of weight we learn from the passage in Bede, in which Ethelbert is described as receiving Augustine in the open air:

"Post dies ergo venit ad insulam rex, et residens sub divo jussit Augustinum cum sociis ad suum ibidem adveire colloquium; caverat enim ne in aliquam domum ad se introirent, vetere usus augurio, ne superventu suo, si quid maleficæ artis habuissent, eum superando deciperent."--_Hist. Eccles._, l. i. c. 25.

It was cross-legged that Lucina was sitting before the floor of Alemena when she was deceived by Galanthes. In Devonshire there is still a saying which recommends "sitting cross-legged to help persons on a journey;" and it is employed as a charm by schoolboys in order to avert punishment. (Ellis's _Brand_, iii. 258.) Were not the cross-legged effigies, formerly considered to be those of Crusaders, so arranged with an idea of the mysterious virtue of the position?

RICHARD J. KING.

_Twickenham--Did Elizabeth visit Bacon there?_--I believe all the authors who within the last sixty years have written on the history of Twickenham, Middlesex (and among the most known of these I may mention Lysons, Ironside, and John Norris Brewer), have, when mentioning Twickenham Park, formerly the seat of Lord Bacon, stated that he there entertained Queen Elizabeth. Of this circumstance I find no account in the works of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. His lordship entertained her at Gorhambury in one of her progresses; and I would ask if it be possible that Twickenham may have been mistaken for his other seat of Gorhambury? It is well known Queen Elizabeth passed much of the latter part of her life at Richmond, and ended her days there; and in Mr. Nares' _Memoirs of Lord Burghley_ there is an account of her visit to Barn-Elms; and there is also a curious description of her visit to Kew (in that neighbourhood) in the _Sydney Papers_, published by Arthur Collins, in two vols. folio, vol. i. p. 376., in a letter from Rowland Whyte, Esq. Had Lord Bacon received her majesty, it must most probably have been in 1595. But perhaps some of your readers may be able to supply me with information on this subject.

D.N.

_Burial towards the West._--The usual posture of the dead is with the feet eastward, and the head towards the west: the fitting attitude of men who look for their Lord, "whose name is The East," and who will come to judgement in the regions of the dawn suddenly. But it was the ancient usage of the Church that the martyr, the bishop, the saint, and even the priest, should occupy in their sepulture a position the reverse of the secular dead, and lie down with their feet westward, and their heads to the rising sun. The position of the crozier and the cross on ancient sepulchres of the clergy record and reveal this fact. The doctrine suggested by such a burial was, that these mighty men which were of old would be honoured with a first resurrection, and as their Master came on from the east, they were to arise and to follow the Lamb as He went; insomuch that they, with Him, would advance to the Judgement of the general multitudes,--the ancients and the saints which were worthy to judge and reign. Now, Sir, my purpose in this statement is to elicit, if I may, from your learned readers illustrations of this distinctive interment.

R.S. HAWKER.

Morwenstow.

_Medal struck by Charles II._--Voltaire, in his _Histoire de Charles XII._, liv. 4., states that a medal was struck in commemoration of a victory which Charles XII. gained over the Russians, at a place named Hollosin, near the Boresthenes, in the year 1708. He adds that on one side of this medal was the epigraph, "Sylvæ, paludes, aggeres, hostes victi;" on the other the verse of Lucan:--

"Victrices _copias_ alium laturus in orbem."

The verse of Lucan referred to is in lib. v. l.238.:

"Victrices _aquilas_ alium laturus in orbem."

Query, Is the medal referred to by Voltaire known to exist? and if so, is the substitution of the unmetrical and prosaic word _copias_ due to the author of the medal, or to Voltaire himself?

L.

_National Debt._--What volumes, pamphlets, or paragraphs can be pointed out to the writer, in poetry or prose, alluding to the bribery, corruption, and abuses connected with the formation of the National Debt from 1698 to 1815?

F.H.B.

_Midwives licensed._--In the articles to be inquired into in the province of Canterbury, anno 1571 (_Grindal Rem._, Park. Soc. 174-58), inquiry to be made

"Whether any use charms, or unlawful prayers, or invocations, in Latin or otherwise, and _namely, midwives in the time of women's travail of child_."

In the oath taken by Eleanor Pead before being licensed by the Archbishop to be a midwife a similar clause occurs; the words, "Also, I will not use any kind of sorcery or incantations in the time of the travail of any woman." Can any of your readers inform me what charms or prayers are here referred to, and at what period midwives ceased to be licensed by the Archbishop, or if any traces of such license are still found in Roman Catholic countries?

S.P.H.T.

* * * * * {409}

REPLIES.

THE BLACK ROOD OF SCOTLAND.

(Vol. ii., p. 308.)

I am not aware of any record in which mention of this relique occurs before the time of St. Margaret. It seems very probable that the venerated crucifix which was so termed was one of the treasures which descended with the crown of the Anglo-Saxon kings. When the princess Margaret, with her brother Edgar, the lawful heir to the throne of St. Edward the Confessor, fled into Scotland, after the victory of William, she carried this cross with her amongst her other treasures. Aelred of Rievaulx (ap. Twysd. 350.) gives a reason why it was so highly valued, and some description of the rood itself:

"Est autem crux illa longitudinem habens palmæ de auro purissimo mirabili opere fabricats, quæ in modum techæ clauditur et aperitur. Cernitur in ea quædarn Dominicæ crucis portio, (sicut sæpe multorum miraculorum argumento probatum est). Salvatoris nostri ymaginem habens de ebore densissime sculptam et aureis distinctionibus mirabiliter decoratam."

St. Margaret appears to have destined it for the abbey which she and her royal husband, Malcolm III., founded at Dunfermline in honour of the Holy Trinity: and this cross seems to have engaged her last thoughts for her confessor relates that, when dying, she caused it to be brought to her, and that she embraced, and gazed steadfastly upon it, until her soul passed from time to eternity. Upon her death (16th Nov., 1093), the Black Rood was deposited upon the altar of Dunfermline Abbey, where St. Margaret was interred.

The next mention of it that I have been enabled to make note of, occurs in 1292, in the Catalogue of Scottish Muniments which were received within the Castle of Edinburgh, in the presence of the Abbots of Dunfermline and Holy Rood, and the Commissioners of Edward I., on the 23rd August in that year, and were conveyed to Berwick-upon-Tweed. Under the head

"Omnia ista inventa fuerunt in quadam cista in Dormitorio S. Crucis, et ibidem reposita prædictos Abbates et altos, sub ecrum sigillis."

we find

"Unum scrinium argenteum deauratum, in quo reponitur crux quo vocatur _la blake rode_."--Robertson's _Index_, Introd. xiii.

It does not appear that any such fatality was ascribed to this relique as that which the Scots attributed to the possession of the famous stone on which their kings were crowned, or it might be conjectured that when Edward I. brought "the fatal seat" from Scone to Westminster, he brought the Black Rood of Scotland too. That amiable and pleasing historian, Miss Strickland, has stated that the English viewed the possession of this relique by the Scottish kings with jealousy; that it was seized upon by Edward I., but restored on the treaty of peace in 1327. This statement is erroneous; the rood having been mistaken for the stone, which, by the way, as your readers know, was never restored.

We next find it in the possession of King David Bruce, who lost this treasured relique, with his own liberty, at the battle of Durham (18th Oct., 1346), and from that time the monks of Durham became its possessors. In the _Description of the Ancient Monuments, Rites, and Customs of the Abbey Church of Durham_, as they existed at the dissolution, which was written in 1593, and was published by Davies in 1672, and subsequently by the Surtees Society, we find it described as

"A most faire roode or picture of our Saviour, in silver, called the Black Roode of Scotland, brought out of Holy Rood House, by King David Bruce ... with the picture of Our Lady on the one side of our Saviour, and St. John's on the other side, very richly wrought in silver, all three having crownes of pure beaten gold of goldsmith's work, with a device or rest to take them off or on."

The writer then describes the "fine wainscote work" to which this costly "rood and pictures" were fastened on a pillar at the east end of the southern aisle of the quire. And in a subsequent chapter (p. 21. of Surtees Soc. volume) we have an account of the cross miraculously received by David I. (whom the writer confounds with the King David Bruce captured at the battle of Durham, notwithstanding that his _Auntient Memorial_ professes to be "collected forthe of the best antiquaries"), and in honour of which he founded Holy Rood Abbey in 1128 from which account it clearly appears that this cross was distinct from the Black Rood of Scotland. For the writer, after stating that this miraculous cross had been brought from Holy Rood House by the king, as a "most fortunate relique," says:

"He lost _the said crosse_, which was taiken upon him, and many other most wourthie and excellent jewells ... which all weare offred up at the shryne of Saint Cuthbert, _together with the Blacke Rude of Scotland_ (so termed), with Mary and John, maid of silver, being, as yt were, smoked all over, which was placed and sett up most exactlie in the pillar next St. Cuthbert's shrine," &c.

In the description written in 1593, as printed, the size of the Black Rood is not mentioned; but in Sanderson's _Antiquities of Durham_, in which he follows that description, but with many variations and omissions, he says (p. 22.), in mentioning the Black Rood of Scotland, with the images, as above described,--

"Which rood and pictures were all three very richly wrought in silver, and were all smoked blacke over, {410} being large pictures of a yard or five quarters long, and on every one of their leads a crown of pure beaten gold," &c.

I have one more (too brief) notice of this famous rood. It occurs in the list of reliques preserved in the Feretory of St. Cuthhert, under the care of the shrine-keeper, which was drawn up in 1383 by Richard de Sedbrok, and is as follows:

"A black crosse, called the _Black Rode of Scotland_."--MS. Dunelm., B. ii. 35.