Chapter 4

Then, he taking up the cushion, they take hands, and dance round, singing as before: and this they do till the whole company is taken into the ring. Then the cushion is laid down before the first man, the woman singing, "This dance," &c. (as before), only instead of "Come to," they sing "Go fro," and instead of "Welcome, John Sanderson," &c., they sing, "Farewell, John Sanderson, farewell," &c.: and so they go out, one by one, as they came in. This dance was at one time highly popular, both at court and in the cottage, in the latter of which, in some remote country villages, it is still danced. Selden, in his _Table Talk_, thus refers to it:

"The court of England is much altered. At a solemn dancing, first you have the grave measures, then the _Corvantoes_ and the _Galliards_, and this is kept up with ceremony, at length to Trenchmore and the Cushion dance; and then all the company dance, lord and groom, lady and kitchen-maid, no distinction. (Would our fair Belgravians of 1850 condescend to dance with their kitchen-maids?) So in our court in Queen Elizabeth's time, gravity and state were kept up. In King James's time, things were pretty well. But in King Charles's time there has been nothing but Trenchmore and the Cushion dance," &c.

I shall also feel obliged for the date of _Bab at the Bowster_, or _Bab in the Bowster_, as it is called in Scotland. Jamieson, in his _Dictionary_, describes it as a very old Scottish dance, and generally the last danced at weddings and merry-makings. It is now danced with a handkerchief in place of a cushion; and no words are used. That a rhyme was formerly used, there is little doubt. Query, What were the words of this rhyme?

MAC.

Charminster.

* * * * *

DID BUNYAN KNOW HOBBES?

I observe a querist wishes to know the artist of the portrait of Bunyan prefixed to his works. I can only myself conjecture Cooper, the miniature painter, but I am also curious about the great author of _The Pilgrim's Progress_.

First, is Bunyan really the author of "Heart's Ease in Heart's Trouble," and the "Visions of Heaven and Hell," published in his works, and perhaps, excepting "Grace Abounding," the most popular of his received miscellanies? I think not. My reasons are these. The style is very different, and much poorer than his best works. In the "Progress," when he quotes Latin, he modestly puts a side-note [The Latin that _I borrow_]. In the two tracts mentioned he flashes out a bit of Latin two or three times where he might have much better used English, or in a superfluous way. Also it is curious to know that in his "Visions of Hell" he meets Leviathan Hobbes, the philosopher of Malmesbury. The passage is curious, for if true, and written by Bunyan, it proves him to be personally acquainted with Hobbes. I extract it. After hearing his name called out, Epenetus (the author and visitant of the infernal regions) naturally inquires who it is that calls him. He is answered,--

"I was once well acquainted with you on earth, and had almost persuaded you to be of my opinion. I am the author of that celebrated book, so well known by the title of _Leviathan_!

"'What! the great Hobbes,' said I, 'are you come hither? _Your voice is so much changed, I did not know it._'"

The dialogue which ensues is not worth quoting, as it is from our purpose. But I would ask when was the time when Bunyan "was nearly persuaded to be of Hobbes' opinion?" If he is the author and speaks the truth (and he is notoriously truthful), it must have been in early youth; but surely the philosopher of Malmesbury could not know an obscure tinker. Bunyan cannot speak metaphorically, for he had not read the _Leviathan_, since he mentions that his only reading in early life, _i.e._ when he was likely to have embraced freethinking, was the _Practice of Piety_, and the _Plain Man's Pathway to Heaven_, his wife's dowry. {519} Moreover, he notes particularly the _change of voice_, a curious circumstance, which testifies personal acquaintance. Hobbes died in 1679; Bunyan in 1688. Were they intimate?

JAS. H. FRISWELL.

* * * * *

Minor Queries.

_Boiling to Death._--Some of your correspondents have communicated instances where burning to death was inflicted as a punishment; and MR. GATTY suggests that it would prove an interesting subject for inquiry, at what period such barbarous inflictions ceased. In Howe's _Chronicle_ I find the two following notices:

"The 5th of Aprill (1532) one Richard Rose, a cooke, was boiled in Smithfielde, for poisoning of divers persons, to the number of sixteen or more, at ye Bishop of Rochester's place, amongst the which Benet Curwine, gentleman, was one, and hee intended to have poisoned the bishop himselfe, but hee eate no potage that day, whereby hee escaped. Marie the poore people that eate of them, many of them died."--Howe's _Chronicle_, p. 559.

"The 17th March (1542) Margaret Dany, a maid, was boiled in Smithfield for poisoning of three households that shee had dwelled in."--Howe's _Chronicle_, p. 583.

Query, was this punishment peculiar to cooks guilty of poisoning? And when did the latest instance occur?

L.H.K.

_Meaning of "Mocker."_--To-day I went into the cottage of an old man, in the village of which I am curate, and finding him about to cut up some wood, and he being very infirm, I undertook the task for him, and chopped up a fagot for his fire.

During the progress of my work, the old fellow made the following observation:--

"Old Nannie Hawkins have got a big stick o' wood, and she says as I shall have him for eight pence. If I could get him, I'd soon _mocker_ him."

Upon my asking him the meaning of the word _mocker_, he informed me it meant to _divide_ or _cleave in pieces;_ but, not being "a scholar" as he termed it, he could not tell me how to spell it, so I know not whether the orthography I have adopted is correct or not.

Can any of your readers give me a clue to the derivation of this word? I certainly never heard it before.

I ought perhaps to state, that this is a country parish in Herefordshire.

W.M.

Pembridge, Dec. 16.

_"Away, let nought to love displeasing"._--Is it known who was the author of the song to be found in Percy's _Reliques_, and many other collections, beginning--

"Away, let nought to love displeasing."

The first collection, so far as I know, in which it appears is entitled _Miscellaneous Poems by several Hands_, published by D. Lewis, London, 1726; and in this work it is called a translation from the ancient British. Does this mean a translation of an ancient poem, or a translation of a poem written in some extant dialect of the language anciently spoken in Britain? Either would appear to me incredible.

As I feel much interested in the poetry of English songs, can you or any of your correspondents inform me if there exists any _good_ collection; that is, a collection, of such only as are excellent of their respective kinds? That the English language possesses materials for forming such a collection, and an extensive one too, I have no doubt, though I have never met with one. And, if there be none that answers the description I give, I should be glad of information respecting the best that exist.

It is scarcely necessary to add, that my standard of excellence would admit only those which bore the character of "immortal verse," rejecting such as had been saved merely by the music to which they had been "married."

SAMUEL HICKSON.

Dec. 14. 1850.

_Baron Münchausen._--Who was the author of this renowned hero's adventures? The _Conversations-Lexicon_ (art. _Münchausen_) states that the stories are to be found under the title of "Mendacia Ridicula," in vol. iii. of _Deliciæ Academicæ_, by J.P. Lange (Heilbronn, 1665); and that "at a later period they appeared in England, where a reviewer supposed them to be a satire on the ministry." I remember to have read when a boy (I think in _The Percy Anecdotes_), that the book was written by an Englishman who was styled "M----," and was described as having been long a prisoner in the Bastille.

Since writing thus far I have seen the note by J.S. (Vol. ii., pp. 262-3.) on Münchausen's story of the horn. The idea of sounds frozen in the air, and thawed by returning warmth, was no invention of "Castilian, in his _Aulicus_" (_i.e._ Castiglione, author of _Il Cortegiano_); for, besides that, it is found in his contemporary Rabelais (liv. iv. cc. 55-6), I believe it may be traced to one of the later Greek writers, from whom Bishop Taylor, in one of his sermons, borrows it as an illustration.

J.C.R.

_"Sing Tantararara Rogues all," &c._--The above is the chorus of many satirical songs written to expose the malpractices of peculators, &c. Can any of your readers point out who was the author of the _original song_, and where it is to be found?

A SUBSCRIBER.

_Meaning of "Cauking."_--An old dame told me the other day, in Cheshire, that her servant was a {520} good one, and among other good qualities "she never went _cauking_ into the neighbours' houses." Unde derivatur "cauking?"

CHAS. PASLAM.

* * * * *

REPLIES.

THE WISE MEN OF GOTHAM.

(Vol. ii., p. 476.)

The proverb, "As wise as the men of Gotham." is given in Fuller's _Worthies_ (ed. 1662, pp. 315, 316.). Ray, in his note upon this, observes

"It passeth for the _Periphrasis_ of a fool, and an hundred fopperies are feigned and fathered on the townsfolk of _Gotham_, a village in this county [Nottinghamshire]. Here two things may be observed:

"1. Men in all ages have made themselves merry with singling out some place, and fixing the staple of stupidity and solidity therein. So the _Phrygians_ in _Asia_, the _Abderitæ_ in _Thrace_, and _Boeotians_ in _Greece_, were notorious for dulmen and blockheads.

"2. These places thus slighted and scoffed at, afforded some as witty and wise persons as the world produced. So _Democritus_ was an _Abderite_, _Plutarch_ a _Boeotian_, &c.

"As for _Gotham_, it doth breed as wise people as any which causelessly laugh at their simplicity. Sure I am _Mr. William de Gotham_, fifth Master of _Michael House_ in _Cambridge_, 1336, and twice Chancellor of the University, was as grave a governor as that age did afford."--3d. ed. p. 258.

In Thoroton's _Nottinghamshire_, vol. i. pp. 42, 43., the origin of the saying, as handed down by tradition, is thus given:--King John intending to pass through this place towards Nottingham, was prevented by the inhabitants, they apprehending that the ground over which a king passed was for ever after to become a public road. The king, incensed at their proceedings, sent from his court, soon afterwards, some of his servants to inquire of them the reason of their incivility and ill-treatment, that he might punish them. The villagers hearing of the approach of the king's servants, thought of an expedient to turn away his majesty's displeasure from them. When the messengers arrived at Gotham, they found some of the inhabitants engaged in endeavouring to drown an eel in a pool of water; some were employed in dragging carts upon a large barn, to shade the wood from the sun; and others were engaged in hedging a cuckoo, which had perched itself upon an old bush. In short, they were all employed upon some foolish way or other, which convinced the king's servants that it was a village of fools.

Should J.R.M. not yet have seen it, I beg to refer him to Mr. Halliwell's interesting edition of _The Merry Tales of the Wise Men of Gotham_ (Lond. 1840) for fuller and further particulars.

J.B. COLMAN.

* * * * *

Replies To Minor Queries.

_Master John Shorne_.--As neither MR. THOMS' Notes (Vol. ii., p. 387.) nor MR. WAY'S (p. 450.) mention where this reputed saint lived, or speak of him as connected with Buckinghamshire, I will offer an extract from Lysons in the hope of casting some little light on the subject.

"North Marston.--The church is a handsome Gothic structure; there is a tradition that the chancel was built with the offerings at the shrine of Sir John Shorne, a very devout man, of great veneration with the people, who was rector of North Marston about the year 1290, and it is said that the place became populous and flourishing in consequence of the great resort of persons to a well which he had blessed. This story stands upon a better foundation than most vulgar traditions; the great tithes of North Marston are still appropriated to the dean and canons of Windsor, who, before the Reformation, might without difficulty have rebuilt the chancel, as it is very probable they did, with the offerings at the shrine of Sir John Shorne, for we are told that they were so productive, that on an average they amounted to 500l. per annum.[1] Sir John Shorne, therefore, although his name is not to be found, appears to have been a saint of no small reputation. The common people in the neighbourhood still keep up his memory by many traditional stories. Browne Willis, says, that in his time there were people who remembered a direction-post standing, which pointed the way to Sir John Shorne's shrine."[2]

North Marston, formerly Merston, is about four miles from Winslow. I visited it about a year ago, and drank of the well, or spring, which is about a quarter of a mile from the village; but I know nothing of the traditions alluded to by Lysons. The chancel of the church is a fine specimen of perpendicular style, with a vestry of the same date, and of two stories, with a fireplace in each. I do not find North Marston, in Bucks, mentioned in Leland, Camden, or Defoe, nor can I meet with any account of Sir John Shorne in any books of English saints within my reach. A copy of Browne Willis's MSS. may be seen in the British Museum.

W.H.K.

[Footnote 1: _History of Windsor_, p. 111.]

[Footnote 2: B. Willis's MSS., Bodleian Library.]

For the information of those who may not have the _Norfolk Archæology_ to refer to, let me add that John Shorne appears to have been rector of North Marston, in Buckinghamshire, about the year 1290, "and was held in great veneration for his virtues, which his benediction had imparted to a holy well in his parish, and for his miracles, one of which, _the feat of conjuring the devil into a boot_, was considered so remarkable that it was represented in the east window of his church."

E.S.T.

_Antiquity of Smoking._--The passage is in Herodian. In the time of Commodus there was a {521} pestilence in Italy. The emperor went to Laurentum for the benefit of the smell of the laurel trees.

"In ipsa quoque urbe de medicorum sententia plerique unguentis suavissimus nares atque aures opplebant, suffituque[3] et odoramentis assidua utebantur, quod meatus sensuum (ut quidem dicunt) odoribus illis occupati, neque admittant aëra tabificum: et si maxime admiserint, tamen eum majore quasi vi longe superari."

This has nothing to do with the practice of smoking, nor is it clear that they smoked these things with a pipe into the mouth at all. The medical use of fumigation, as Sir William Temple observes, was greatly esteemed among the ancients. But it is very probable that, being sometimes practised by means of pipes, it was what led to the practice of smoking constantly, either for general medical protection, or merely for luxury, in countries and times too, when these epidemics from bad air were very common. The great love of smoking among the Turks may be originally owing to the plague.

C.B.

[Footnote 3: [Greek: "thumiamasi te kai arômasi sunechôs echrônto."]]

_Antiquity of Smoking_ (Vol. ii., pp. 41. 216. 465.).--Mr. Lane, in his edition of the _Arabian Nights_, infers the very late date of that book from there being no mention of tobacco or coffee in it.

As two of the ancient authorities have broken down, it occurred to me that others might.

The reference to Strabo, vii. 296. leads me only to this; that the Mysians were called [Greek: kapnobatai] (some correct to [Greek: kapnopatai]) because they did not eat animals, but milk, cheese, and honey; but of religion, living quietly.

One cannot imagine that this can be meant. I referred to Almaloveen's edition, the old paging.

In the next page he repeats the epithet, coupling it, as before, with the word religious, and arguing from both as having the same meaning.

It occurred to me that somebody might have read [Greek: kapnopotai], "fumum bibentes," which might have given occasion to the reference to this passage: and I find in the English Passow that [Greek: kapnobotai], "smoke-eaters," has been proposed.

[Greek: Kapnopatai], is there derived from [Greek: paomai].

But if these are the readings, they can have nothing to do with smoking, but with religion. From the context they would mean as we say, "living on air;" like Democritus, who subsisted three days upon the steam of new loaves.

[Greek: Kapnobatai] meant, as I believe, to describe their religiousness more directly; treading on the clouds, living _in_ the air: like Socrates in Aristophanes, [Greek: Neph]. 225.:

[Greek: "Aerobatô kai periphronô ton hêlion,"]

And in v. 330. [Greek: kapnos] is used of the clouds:

[Greek: "Ma Di all homichlên kai droson autas hêgoumên kai kapnon einai."]

There is nothing in Solinus, cap. 15.; and Mela, lib. ii., is too wide a reference.

C.B.

_Meaning of the Word "Thwaites"_(Vol. ii., p. 441.).--The word "Thwayte" occurred in the ancient form of the Bidding Prayer: "Ye shalle byddee for tham, that this cherche honour with book, with bell, with vestiments, with _Thwayte_," &c. This form is said to be above four hundred years old; and Palmer says (_Orig. Lit._, iii. p. 60.) that we have memorials of these prayers used in England in the fourteenth century. Hearne remarks that the explication of this word warranted by Sir E. Coke is "a wood grubbed up and turned to arable." This land being given to any church, the donors were thus commended by the prayers of the congregation.

In Yorkshire the word is so understood: Thwaite, or "stubbed ground, ground that has been essarted or cleaned."

J.H.M.

_Meaning of "Thwaites"_ (Vol. ii., p. 441.).--Hearne took the word "Thwayte" to signify "a wood grubbed up and turned into arable." His explanation, with other suggestions as to the meaning, of this word, may be found in a letter from Hearne to Mr. Francis Cherry, printed in vol. i. p. 194. of _Letters written by Eminent Persons in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries_, published by Longman and Co. in 1813.

J.P. JR.

December 5. 1850.

_Thomas Rogers of Horninger_ (Vol. ii., p. 424.).--Your correspondent S.G. will find a brief notice of this person in Rose's _Biographical Dictionary_, London, 1848. It appears he was rector of Horninger, and a friend of Camden; who prefixed some commendatory verses to a work of his, entitled _The Anatomy of the Mind_. I would suggest to S.G. that further information may probably be collected respecting him from these verses, and from the prefaces, &c. of his other works, of which a long list is given in Rose's _Dictionary_.

T.H. KERSLEY, A.B.

King William's Col., Isle of Man.

_Thomas Rogers of Horninger_ (Vol. ii., p 424.).--If S.G. will apply to the Rev. J. Perowne, of his own college, who is understood to be preparing an edition of Rogers's work for the Parker Society, he will doubtless obtain the fullest information.

A.H.

_Earl of Roscommon_ (Vol. ii., p. 468.).--A pretended copy of the inscription at Kilkenny West, mentioned by your correspondent AN HIBERNIAN, was produced in evidence, on the claim of Stephen Francis Dillon to the earldom of Roscommon, before the House of Lords. As there was reason to doubt the evidence of the person who produced that copy, or the genuineness of the inscription itself, the House decided against that claim; and by admitting that of the late earl (descended {522} from the youngest son of the first earl) assumed the extinction of all the issue of the six elder sons. The evidence adduced altogether negatived the presumption of any such issue. Your correspondents FRANCIS and AN HIBERNIAN will find a very clear and succinct account of the late earl's claim, and Stephen Francis Dillon's counter-claim, in _The Roscommon Claim of Peerage_, by J. Sidney Tayler, Lond. 1829.

W.H.C.

_Parse_ (Vol. ii., p. 430.).--Your correspondent J.W.H. is far from correct in supposing that this word was not known in 1611, for he will find it used by Roger Ascham, in a passage quoted by Richardson in his _Dictionary_ sub voce.

In Brinsley's curious _Ludus Literarius_, 1612, reprinted 1627, 4to., the word is frequently used. At page 69. he recommends the "continual practice of _parsing_." At p. 319., enumerating the contents of chap. vi., we have "The Questions of the Accidence, called the _Poasing_ of the English Parts;" and chap. ix. is "Of _Parsing_ and the kinds thereof, &c."

At the end of a kind of introduction there is an "Advertisement by the Printer," intimating that the author's book, "The _Poasing_ of the Accidence," is likely to come forth. From all this, it seems as if the two words were used indifferently.

F.R.A.

_The Meaning of "Version"_ (Vol. ii., p. 466.).--T. appears to apply a peculiar meaning of his own to the word "version," which it would have been quite as well if he had explained in a glossarial note.

He thinks A.E.B. was _mistaken_ in using that phrase in reference to Lord Bacon's translation into Latin of his own English original work, and he proceeds to compare (to what end does not very clearly appear) a sentence from Lord Bacon's English text, with the same sentence as re-translated back again from Lord Bacon's Latin by Wats. Finally, T. concludes with this very singular remark: "Wats' version is the more exact of the two!"

Does T. mean to call Lord Bacon's English text a _version_ of his Latin, by anticipation of eighteen years?

The only other authority for such meaning of the word would seem to be the facetious Dr. Prout, who accused Tom Moore of a similar _version_ of his celebrated papers.

A.E.B.

_First Paper-mill in England_ (Vol. ii., p. 473).--The birthplace of the "High Germaine Spilman" (_Spielmann_), celebrated by Churchyard, your English readers may not easily discover by his description as quoted by DR. RIMBAULT.

"Lyndoam Bodenze" is _Lindau am Boden-see_, on the Lake of Constance (in German, _Bodensee_), once a free imperial city, called, from its site on three islets in the lake, "the Swabian Venice," now a pretty little town belonging to the kingdom of _Bavaria_.

V.

"_Torn by Horses_" (Vol. ii., p. 480.).--This cruel death was suffered by _Ravaillac_, who accomplished what Jean Châtel failed in doing.

The execution took place on the 27th of May, 1610, with the most atrocious severities of torture, of which the drawing by horses was but the last out of a scene that continued for many hours. The day before he had been racked to the very extremity of human suffering. The horses dragged at the wretch's body for an hour in vain; at length a nobleman present sent one of his own, which was stronger; but this even would not suffice. The executioner had to sever the mangled body with his knife, before the limbs would give way. I could add more of these details, but the subject is intolerable.

The execution of _Ravaillac_ was followed with the utmost exactness, but with more cruelty, if possible, in the case of _Damiens_ (sentenced for the attempt on Louis le Bien-Aimé), who suffered on the Place de Grève, March 28. 1757. The frightful business lasted from morning till dusk! Here again the knife was used before the body gave way, the horses having dragged at it for more than an hour first; the poor wretch living, it is said, all the while!