Chapter 2

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Minor Queries.

_Rab. Surdam, Meaning of._--The eccentric but clever and learned William Nicol, one of the masters of the High School of Edinburgh, and noted as the friend of Burns, was the son of a poor man, a tailor, in the village of Ecclefechan, in Dumfriesshire. He erected, over the grave of his parents, in Hoddam churchyard, a _throuch stone_, or altar-formed tomb, bearing the words

"RAB. SURDAM."

Query the meaning of these mystical characters?

Edinensis.

_Abbot Richard of Strata Florida._--Can you or any of your antiquarian readers solve me the following. It is stated in vol. i. p. 100. of Lewis Dwnn's _Heraldic Visitation into Wales, &c._, art. "Williames of Ystradffin in the county of Caermarthen":--

"William ab Thomas Goch, Esq., married Joan, daughter and sole heiress to Richard the Abbot of Strata Florida, county of Cardigan (temp. Henry VII.), son of David ab Howel of Gwydyr, North Wales."

From this I naturally expected to find some connecting link between the Abbot and the ancient family of Wynn of Gwydyr, derived from Rhodri Lord of Anglesey. In their lineage, however, the name of David ab Howel does not occur; but about the aforesaid period one of their progenitors named Meredith ab Sevan, it is stated, purchased Gwydyr from a David ab Howel Coytmore, derived through the Lord of Penymachno from Prince David, Lord of Denbigh, the ill-fated brother of Llewelyn, last sovereign prince of North Wales. Is it not therefore likely that the said Abbot Richard was son to the above David ab Howel (Coytmore), the ancient proprietor of Gwydyr; that his surname was Coytmore; and the arms he bore were those of his ancestor David Goch, Lord of Penymachno, viz., Sa. a lion ramp., ar. within a bordure engr. or.

W.G.S.J.

_Cardinal Chalmers._--Can any of your readers give me some information about a Cardinal Chalmers,--whether there ever was a cardinal of the name, and where I could find some account of him? I have the boards of an old book on which are stamped in gilding the Chalmers arms, with a cardinal's hat and tassels over them. If I remember correctly, the arms are those of the family of Chalmers, of Balnacraig, in Aberdeenshire.

I have some reason to believe that the boards were purchased at the sale of the author of _Caledonia_.

S.P.

_Armorial Bearings_ (Vol. ii., p. 424.).--My note of the coat-armour in question stands thus: "Three bars between ten bells, four, three, two, and one." And I have before now searched in vain for its appropriation. I am consequently obliged to {494} content myself with the supposition that it is a corruption, as it may easily be, of the coat of Keynes, viz. "vair, three bars gules," the name of the wife of John Speke, the great-great-grandfather of Sir John Speke, the founder of the chapel; and this is the more probable as the arms of Somaster, the name of his grandfather's wife, appear also in the roof of the same chapel.

J.D.S.

[J.D.S. is right in his blazon; and we had been requested by J.W.H. to amend his Query respecting this coat.--ED.]

"_Fiat Justitia_"--Who is the author of the apothegm--

"Fiat justitia, ruat coelum?"

J.E.B. MAYOR.

_Painting by C. Bega_.--

"Wy singen vast wat nieus, en hebben noch een buyt, Een kraekling, is ons winst, maet tliedtkenmoet eerst wt."

I have a small oil painting on oak panel which bears the above inscription. The subject of the painting is a boy, who holds in his hands a song, which he appears to be committing to memory, whilst another boy is looking at the song over his shoulder. "C. Bega" is written on the back of the picture-frame, that evidently being the artist's name. I shall feel obliged by your translating the above two lines for me, and also for information as to "C. Bega."

W.E. Howlett.

Kirton.

_Darcy Lever Church._--On the line of railway from Normanton to Bolton there is a small station called Darcy Lever.

The church there struck me, on a casual view, as one of the most beautiful examples of ecclesiastical architecture which I have ever seen, and I should therefore like very much to know the date of the structure, and, if possible, the architect.

The singularity which attracts attention is the delicate tracery of the spire, which I should wish to see largely imitated.

E.

_R. Ferrer._--I have a drawing, _supposed_ to be of Sir W. Raleigh by himself when in the Tower: it came from Daniel's _History of Henry VII._, and below it was written,

"R. Ferrer, Nec Prece nec Pretio."

Could the "Notes and Queries" ask if anything is known of this R.F.?

H.W.D.

_Writers on the Inquisition._--In the English edition of Voltaire's _Philosophical Dictionary_, article "Inquisition," I find, among other authors on that subject who are quoted, Hiescas Salazar, Mendoca (sic: Query, Salasar y Mendoca?), Fernandez, Placentinus, Marsilius, Grillandus, and Locatus. Can any of your bibliographical friends give me any information as to these authors or their works? Let me at the same time ask information respecting Bordoni, the author of _Sacrum Tribunal Indicum in causis sanctae fidei contra Hereticos, &c._, Rome, 1648.

Iota.

_Buckden_ (Vol. ii., p. 446.).--Will M.C.R. explain his allusion to "the abbot's house" at Buckden. I am not aware of Buckden having been the seat of a monastic establishment. Perhaps what he calls "the abbot's house" is part of the palace of the bishops of Lincoln.

C.H. Cooper.

Cambridge, December 2. 1850.

_True Blue._--Query the origin of the term "True Blue." After the lapse of a few years it seems to have been applied indifferently to Presbyterians and Cavaliers. An amusing series of passages might be perhaps gathered exemplifying its use even to the present time. The colour and "cry" True Blue are now almost monopolised by the Tory party, although there are exceptions--Westmoreland and Yorkshire, for instance.

Viator.

_Passage in Hamlet._--In Mr. C. Knight's "Library," "Pictorial," and "Cabinet" editions of Shakspeare, the following _novel_ reading is given without note or comment to say why the universally received text has been altered. It occurs in _Hamlet_, Act I. Sc. 7.

_Ham._ "Staid it long? _Hor._ "While one with _modern_ haste might tell a hundred."

As Mr. Knight is now publishing a "National" edition of Shakspeare, perhaps you will allow me through your pages to ask for his authority for this change of "moderate" to "modern," in order that his new reading may either be justified or abandoned.

J.J.M.

_Inventor of a secret Cypher._--I think that there was in the fifteenth century a Frenchman so profound a calculator that he discovered for the King of France a secret cypher, used by the court of Spain. I saw a notice of him in Collier's great _Dictionary_, but have forgotten him, and should like to renew my acquaintance.

Tyro-Etymologicus.

_Fossil Elk of Ireland._--Can any of your learned readers give me information on the fossil elk of Ireland--_Cervus Megaceros_, _Cervus Giganteus_ of Goldsmith? It is stated to be found in various countries, as France, Germany, and Italy, besides England and Ireland. In the Royal Dublin Society museum there is, I am told, a rib of this animal which has the appearance of having been wounded by some sharp instrument, which remained long fixed in the bone, but not so deeply as to affect the creature's life. It seemed to be such a wound as the head of an arrow would produce.

It has been by some thought to be the "Sech" of Celtic tradition. I have learned that the last specimen was shot so lately as 1533, and that a {495} figure of the animal, mistaken for the common elk, is, engraved in the November Chronicle. Now I should feel exceedingly obliged if any information could be rendered me on the matters stated above, as I am most anxious to collect all possible information regarding this most noble species of the Dama tribe.

W.R.C. (a Subscriber).

Exeter, Nov. 1850.

_Red Sindon_ (Vol. ii., p. 393.).--Will Mr. Planche be so good as to say what the _red sindon_ of the chamber of Philippa was?

B.W.

_Lights on the Altar._--1. What evidence is there that in the British or Saxon churches lights were burned on the altar at the time of the eucharist?

2. Are there any Canons of these churches, sanctioning the practice?

3. What evidence is there of any other service or solemnity, where lights were burned in the day-time in these churches.

D. Sholbus.

_Beloe, Child's Book by._--In the _Sexagenarian_, by Beloe, is the following passage:

"In four mornings he (Rev. W. Beloe) wrote a book which he intended as an amusement for his children. Some friends recommended him to print it, and though many years have elapsed since it was written, it still continues so great a favourite with younger readers, that an edition is every year published."

Can any of your readers inform me the name of the book here alluded to; and who was the publisher?

F.B. Relton

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Replies.

MERCENARY PREACHER.

In reply to a Query as to the meaning of this epithet in an obituary notice, quoted, in Vol. i, p. 384., your correspondent Arun suggests, in the same volume, p. 489., that it was most likely "used in its primary signification, and in the sense in which we still apply it to troops in the pay of a state, foreign to their own." I cannot help thinking, that by the designation _mercenary_ was implied something more disreputable than that merely of "one who, having no settled cure, was at liberty to be 'hired;'" and in this I am borne out by Chaucer, no mean authority, who, in his well-known picture of the parson, in the Prologue to the _Canterbury Tales_, amongst the various items of piety and virtuousness with which, in that inimitable piece of character-painting, he credits the "pore persoun of a toun," distinctly states (I quote Mr. Wright's Percy Society edition),--

"He was a Schepperde and no _mercenarie_."

Now this emphatic disclaimer shows clearly enough that when Chaucer wrote, to be a _mercenary preacher_ was not, in _reputation_ at least, a desirable position; and whether some two centuries and a half later, the appellation became less objectionable, is a question not unworthy of elucidation. No lengthened transcript is needed from so popular a description; its whole spirit is directed not only against hirelings, but also against non-residents:--

"He sette not his benefice to huyre, And lefte his scheep encombred in the myre; * * * * * But dwelte at hoom and kepte wel his folde."

Neither hireling nor non-resident found favour in Chaucer's eyes. They could have very little in common with one whom he says:--

"But Criste's lore, and his apostles twelve, He taught, but first he folwed it himselve."

The _date_ of the obituary quoted, 1646, lends, too some force to the supposition that "old Mr. Lewis" was, vulgarly speaking, "no better than he ought to be." Milton not many years afterwards published his memorable philippic _On the likeliest Means to remove Hirelings out of the Church_; and after all allowance is made for the sternness of the Puritan poet's theology, there would still remain enough to show that his fiercely eloquent tract might well have been called forth by the presence in the church of an overweening army of "Mercenary Preachers." Further space, however, need not now be trenched on; but should any new facts be adduced by some of your correspondents illustrative of the curious entry referred to, I am sure they will be welcomed by all your readers, and by none more than by yours, obediently,

Henry Campkin.

Reform Club, Dec. 2. 1850.

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"THE OWL IS ABROAD."

(Vol. ii., p. 393.)

A.R. asks, "On what ground is the base song, 'The Owl is abroad' attributed to Henry Purcell?" To which I reply, the mistake--for _mistake_ it is--originated with Dr. Clarke (afterwards Clarke Whitfield), who inserted it in his _Beauties of Purcell_. How little this musician knew of the "beauties" of Purcell is exhibited in his work; and how little he knew of the style and peculiarities of the music of the period, is shown by his insertion of the song in question. Dr. Clarke's mistake is noticed in the late William Linley's elegant work entitled _Shakspeare's Dramatic Songs_, vol. i. p. 6. His words are these:

"In regard to the _Tempest_ music of Mr. Smith, it has been put to a strange medley of words; some of them are, however by Shakspeare; but they do not appear to come the brighter from the polish it was his design to give them; here and there we have a flash or two, but they must ever be vainly opposed to Purcell's pure and steady light. The song of 'No More {496} Dams,' is however an excellent one, and it has been selected accordingly. The other song, 'The Owl is abroad,' is also characteristic, but the words are not Shakspeare's. The last air has been inserted in Dr. Clarke's _Beauties of Purcell_, as Purcell's. _This is a mistake, which, in justice to Smith, should be rectified._"

Your correspondent also refers to Mr. G. Hogarth's _Memoirs of the Musical Drama_, as an authority for attributing the song in question to Purcell. Mr. Hogarth's work, I am sorry to say, can never be depended upon as to facts. It is almost entirely made up from _second-hand_ authorities; consequently blunders of the greatest magnitude occur in every chapter. It has the merit of being a well-written and an entertaining book; but here any praise must end.

A.R. speaks of having referred to Purcell's _Tempest_. I must beg to correct him in this statement, as no _complete_ copy of that work (my own excepted) is known to exist. Goodeson's (printed at the end of the last century) is the only copy approaching to anything like completeness, and that is very unlike Purcell's _Tempest_. Did A.R. find in Purcell's _Tempest_ the music of the beautiful lyric, "Where the Bee sucks?" No. Yet Purcell composed music to it. The absence, then, of "The Owl is abroad," is no proof that Purcell did not write music for that song also.

But, in the present case, A.R. may rest assured that the song about which he inquires is the veritable composition of John Christopher Smith.

Edward F. Rimbault.

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OLD ST. PANCRAS CHURCH.

Your correspondent Stephen (Vol. ii., p. 407.) asks for information respecting the "Gospel Oak Tree at Kentish Town." Permit me to connect with it another Query relative to the foundation of the old St. Pancras Church, as the period of its erection has hitherto baffled research. From the subjoined extracts, it appears to be of considerable antiquity. The first extract is from a MS. volume which I purchased at the sale of the library of the Rev. H.F. Lyte (Lot 2578.), entitled,--

"Spicilegium: or A Brief Account of Matters relating to the ecclesiastical Politie of the British Church, compiled from Histories, Councils, Canons, and Acts of Parliament," A.D. 1674.

It was apparently written for publication, but is without name or initials. At p. 21. the writer, after giving an account of the foundation of the cathedral church of Canterbury, goes on to say,--

"Without the walls, betwixt the Cathedral and St. Martin's Church, stood an idol temple, which, with the leave and goodwill of King Ethelbert, St. Augustine purged, and then consecrated it to the memory of St. Pancras the martyr, and after prevailed with the king to found a monastery there for the monks, in honour of the two prime apostles, St. Peter and Paul, appointing it to be the burial-place of the _Kentish_ Kings, as also for his successors in that see. The like to this was Pancras Church, near London, otherwise called _Kentish_ Church, which some ignorantly imagine was the mother of St. Paul's Church in London. I rather think it might be the burying-place belonging to the church of St. Paul, before Cuthbert, Archbishop of Canterbury, obtained leave of the Pope to bury in cities. And in imitation of that at Canterbury, this near London was dedicated to St. Pancras and called _Kentish_ Church."

Connected with the Query of Stephen, it is worthy of notice that St. Augustine held a conference with the Cambrian bishops at a place called by Bede, Augustine's Ac, or Oak, on the borders of the Weccii and West Saxons, probably near Austcliffe, in Gloucestershire (Bede's _Eccles. Hist._ lib. ii. c. 2.).

_Norden_, who wrote in the reign of Elizabeth, in his _Speculum Britainniae_, says that--

"The church of St. Pancras standeth all alone, as utterly forsaken, old and weather-beaten, which, for the antiquitie thereof, is thought not to yield to Paule's of London."

which idea is repeated by _Weever_. And in the year 1749, some unknown poet, soliloquising upon the top of Primrose Hill, bursts out into the following rapturous musing at the sight of "the old weather-beaten church" in the distance.--

"The rev'rend spire of ancient Pancras view, To ancient Pancras pay the rev'rence due; _Christ's sacred altar there, first Britain saw_, And gaz'd, and worshipp'd, with an holy awe, Whilst pitying heav'n diffus'd a saving ray, And heathen darkness changed to Christian day."

_Gentleman's Mag._, xiv. 276.

Perhaps some of the gentlemen now engaged in compiling historical notices of the parish of St. Pancras will be able to dispel the Cimmerian darkness which at present envelopes the consecration of the old church.

The late Mr. Smith, author of _Nollekins and his Times_, made some collections towards a History of St. Pancras. Query, What has become of them?

J. Yeowell.

Hoxton.

_Old St. Pancras Church_ (Vol. ii., p. 464.)--In a note in Croker's edition of Boswell's _Johnson_ (8vo. 1848, p. 840.), Mr. Markland says, that the reason assigned by your correspondent, and in the text of Boswell, for the preference given by the Roman Catholics to this place of burial, rests, as he had learned from unquestionable authority, upon no foundation; "that mere prejudice exists amongst the Roman Catholics in favour of this church, as is the case with respect to other places of burial in various parts of the kingdom." Mr. Markland derived his information from the late {497} Dr. Bramston, Mr. Charles Butler, and Mr. Gage Rokewoode.

S.D.

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Replies to Minor Queries.

_Cardinal Allen's Admonition_ (Vol. ii., p. 463.).--In the Grenville Library, at the British Museum, there is a copy of this work, which I happen to have seen only a few hours before I read Mr. Bliss's Query. Mr. Mendham's reprint of the _Admonition_, published by Duncan in 1842, appeared to me to be remarkably accurate, from a hasty collation which I made of some parts of it with the original. The Grenville copy was formerly Herbert's, and may possible be the same which was sold for 35s. in Mr. Caldecott's sale in 1832. Connected with this _Admonition_ of Cardinal Allen, there is another question of some interest. In Bohn's Guinea Catalogue, No. 16,568., was a broadside, there said to be _unknown and unique_, and entitled _A Declaration of the Sentence and Deposition of Elizabeth, the Usurper and pretended Queen of England_. This was drawn up by Cardinal Allen, and printed at Antwerp; and copies were intended to be distributed in England upon the landing of the Spanish Armada. Can any of your readers inform me who is the present possessor of the document referred to, or whether it has ever been reprinted, or referred to by any writer? Antony Wood, I am aware, refers to the document, but it is plain that he never saw it.

H.P.

_Bolton's Ace_ (Vol. ii., p. 413.).--Ray's anecdote concerning the proverb, "Bate me an ace, quoth Bolton," is perhaps more correctly told in the _Witty Aunsweres and Saiengs of Englishmen_ (Cotton MS. Jul. F. x.):

"William Paulett, Marques of Wynchester and Highe Treasurer of Engelande, being presented by John Heywoode with a booke, asked hym what yt conteyned? and when Heywoode told him 'all the proverbs in Englishe.' 'What all?' quoth my Lorde; 'No, _Bate me an ace, quoth Bolton_, is that in youre booke?' 'No, by my faith, my Lorde, I thinke not,' annswered Heywoode."

The "booke" presented by Heywoode to the Marquis of Winchester was _A Dialogue contayning in Effect the Number of all the Proverbes in the English Tongue compact in a Matter concerning two Marriages; first printed by Berthelet in_ 1546. In 1556 it was "Newly overseen and somewhat augmented." A copy of the latter is in the British Museum.

John Bolton, from whom the proverb derives its origin, was one of Henry VIII.'s "diverting vagabonds." He is several times mentioned as winning money from the king at cards and dice in one of the _Royal Household Books_.

It is but right that I should give this information to your correspondent "T. Cr.", as I have omitted to "note it" in my reprint of Hutton's curious tract.

Edward F. Rimbault.

_Cardinal Beaton_ (Vol. ii., p. 433.).--In Smith's _Iconographia Scotica_ is a portrait of Beaton said to be painted by Vandyke, and evidently the one engraved in Lodge. It is accompanied by a memoir, which would probably be of use to Scotus, as it contains references to a great number of authorities used in its compilation. If Scotus has not met with this, and will send me his address I will forward to him the leaves containing the life.

John I. Dredge.

Pateley Bridge.

_Portrait of Cardinal Beaton_ (Vol. ii., p. 433.).--In No. 57. allusion is made to the portrait of Cardinal Beaton, now at Blairs College, near Aberdeen. In Fyvie Castle, Aberdeenshire, where one of the copies of this portrait, from the easel of James Giles, Esq., R.S.A., now is, there are some manuscripts of Abbe Macpherson (who sent the Blairs picture to this country), purchased at the sale of the late Mr. Chalmers, author of _Caledonia_. Among them there might possibly be some which might tend to confirm the authenticity of the original painting.

S.P.

"_He that runs may read_" (Vol. ii., pp. 374. 439.).--It is idle to prolong this controversy. I think it is no interpretation of part of ver. 2., chap. ii, Habakkuk. Nor do I believe that it has any reference to it. But it is obviously a favourite poetic quotation, and your readers will find it at line 80, in Cowper's _Tirocinium, or A Review of Schools_.

J.G.H.

Pimlico.

_Sir George Downing_ (Vol. ii., p. 464.).--Particulars respecting the first Sir George Downing may be found in Wood's _Athenae Oxonienses_, ii. 27. 758, 759.; Wotton's _English Baronetage_, iv. 415.; _Parliamentary History of England_, xix. 411. 465. 499.; _Continuation of the Life of Edward Earl of Clarendon_, royal 8vo. edit., 1116, 1117. 1165-1170, Burnet's _History of his own Time_, ed. 1838, 136.; Heath's _Chronicle_, 2nd edit., 448. 528, 529, 530. 582.; _Personal History of Charles II_. (at end of Bohn's edition of _Grammont_), 431.; Lister's _Life of Clarendon_, ii. 231-255. 268-271. 311-315. (Mr. Lister's third volume contains numerous letters to and from Sir George Downing); Vaughan's _Protectorate of Cromwell_, i. 227. 255, 256. 264. 266. 268., ii. 299. 317. 433.; Courtenay's _Memoirs of Sir W. Temple_, i. 117. 264. 269.; Pepys's _Diary_; and Evelyn's _Diary_.

Wotton was not acquainted with the fact stated by your correspondent, that "the family is of most ancient origin in Devonshire." Wotton states, and apparently on good authority, that the first of the family of whom he had found mention, was Godfrey Downing, of the county of the city of {498} _Norwich_, who had a son, Arthur Downing, of the county of _Norfolk_, whose son, Calybut (the grandfather of the first Sir George), was of Shennington, in _Gloucestershire_.

Mr. Sims, in his _Index to the Heralds' Visitations_, refers to pedigrees and arms of the family of Downing under _Buckinghamshire_, _Essex_, and _Norfolk_.

C.H. Cooper.