Chapter 2

_George Herbert and the Church at Leighton Bromswold.--Little Gidding._--Some of your readers may not be aware that George Herbert built the church of Leighton Bromswold, Hunts as well as that of Bemerton. The church stands about three-quarters of a mile to the right of the road from Huntingdon to Thrapston, and a view of it is given in Zouch's 4to. edition of Isaac Walton's _Lives_; it is stated, in a note, to be near Spalding, for which read _Spaldwick_. Herbert desired the pulpit and reading-desk to be placed on opposite sides of the church, and of the same height; to show that "preaching ought not to be esteemed above praying, nor praying above preaching."

Query, What is the state of the interior _now_, as to pews, &c.?

The nuns, if I may so call them, in the monastery at Little Gidding, Hunts, employed themselves in covering or in ornamenting the covers of books, in patterns, with silver and coloured-silk threads: a friend of mine in Surrey has a small volume so ornamented by them.

E. H.

Norwich, Jan. 20.

_Etymology of Kobold._--At page 239. of Mr. Bohn's edition of Keightley's _Fairy Mythology_, we find that Mr. K., after heading a chapter with "Kobolds," says in a note:--

"This word is usually derived from the Greek [Greek: kobalos], a knave, _but as this is only found in lexicographers_, it may in reality be a Teutonic word in a Greek form."

Surely, Mr. Keightley has forgotten the following passages--

1. Ar. Equites, 450. Dindf. [Conf. Ranæ, 1015.]

"[Greek: KLEÔN: KOBALOS ei.] [Greek: ALL. panourgos ei.]"

2. Ejusdem fab., 635.:

"[Greek: Bereschethoi te kai KOBALOI kai Mothôn.]"

3. Plutus, 279.:

"[Greek: hôs mothôn ei te kai phusei KOBALOS.]"

4. Aristotle, _H. A._ 8. 12. 12. [Bekker Oxon.] says of a bird,

"[Greek: kobalos kai mimêtês.]"

In the 2nd passage Liddell and Scott call [Greek: kobaloi] "_mischievous goblins_," which is exactly equivalent to "kobolds."

The word is also used adjectively for "knavish tricks," "rogueries."

See _Equites_, 419.:

"[Greek: Kai, nê Di', alla g' esti mou kobala paidos ontos.]"

Ranæ, 104:--

"[Greek: hê mên kobala g' estin, hôs kai soi dokei.]"

In _Equites_, 332. we find [Greek: kobalikeumata], "the tricks of a [Greek: kobalos]."

P. J. F. GANTILLON.

_Judas Cup_ (Vol. ii., p. 298.).--In the _Ancient Monuments, Rites, and Customs of Durham_, published by the Surtees Society, we have the following account of "Judas Cup" in the refectory, which is described as--

"A goodly great mazer, called Judas Cup, edged about {86} with silver and double gilt, with a foot underneath it to stand on, of silver and double gilt, which was never used but on Maunday Thursday at night in the Frater House, where the prior and the whole convent did meet and keep their Maunday." (p. 68.)

I send this with reference to the mention of the "Judas Bell" and "Judas Candle" in your 2nd Volume, p. 298.

ECHO.

_Essheholt Priory._--Esholt Hall (now in the possession of W. R. C. Stansfield, Esq.) is the same as the ancient priory of Essheholt, which was under the abbot of Kirkstall.

This priory fell, of course, with the smaller houses, and was valued at 19l. 0s. 8d. Essheholt remained in the crown till the first year of Edward VI., nine years after the dissolution, when it was granted to Henry Thompson, Gent., one of the king's gens-d'armes at Boulogne. In this family the priory of Esholt remained somewhat more than a century, when it was transferred to the neighbouring and more distinguished house of Calverley by the marriage of Frances, daughter and heiress of H. Thompson, Esq., with Sir Walter Calverley. His son, Sir Walter Calverley, Bart., built, on the site of the old priory, the house which now stands.

Over a door of one of the out-buildings is an inscription in ancient letters, from which may be traced--"Aleisbet. Pudaci, p----," with a bird sitting on the last letter p. (Elizabeth Pudsay, prioress).

The builder of the present house died in 1749; and, in 1755, his son of the same name sold the manor-house and furniture to Robert Stansfield, Esq., of Bradford; from whom the present owner is descended.[1]

CHAS. W. MARKHAM.

Jan. 10. 1851.

[Footnote 1: Thoresby's _History of Leeds_.]

_Crossing Rivers on Skins_ (Vol. iii., p. 3.).--Mr. C. M. G., a near relative of mine, who lately returned from naval service on the Indus, told me, last year, that he had often seen there naked natives employed in fishing. The man, with his fishing-tackle, launches himself on the water, sustained by a large hollow earthen vessel having a round protuberant opening on one side. To this opening the fisherman applies his abdomen, so as to close the vessel against the influx of water; and clinging to this air-filled buoy, floats about quite unconcernedly, and plies his fishing-tackle with great success. The analogy between this Oriental buoy and the inflated skins mentioned by Layard and by your correspondent JANUS DOUSA, is sufficiently remarkable to deserve a note.

G. F. G.

Edinburgh.

* * * * *

Queries.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL QUERIES.

(_Continued from_ Vol. ii., p. 493.)

(31.) P. H. F. (Vol. iii., pp. 24, 25.) has described a 12mo., or rather an 8vo., copy of Latin Psalter in his possession, and he wishes to know whether Montanus had any connexion with one of the translations therein exhibited. The title-page of your correspondent's volume will tell him precisely what the book contains. He had better not rely too much upon MS. remarks in any of his treasures; and when a bibliographical question is being investigated, let _Cyclopædias_ by all means not be disturbed from their shelves. Would it not be truly marvellous if a volume, printed by Robert Stephens in 1556, could in that year have presented, by prolepsis, to its precocious owner a version which Bened. Arias Montanus did not execute until 1571? But P. H. F.'s communication excites another query. He appears to set a special value upon his Psalter because that the verses are in it distinguished by cyphers; but Pagnini's whole Bible, which I spoke of, came thirty years before it, and we have still to go nearly twenty years farther back in search of the earliest example of the employment of Arabic figures to mark the verses in the Book of Psalms. The _Quincuplex Psalterium_, by Jacques le Fevre, is a most beautiful book, perhaps the finest production of the press of Henry Stephens the elder; and not only are the verses numbered in the copy before me, which is of the improved "secunda emissio" in 1513, but the initial letters of them are in red. At signature A iiij. there is a very handsome woodcut of the letter A., somewhat of a different style, from the larger (not the Ascensian) P., within the periphery of which St. Paul is represented, and which is so well worthy of notice in Le Fevre's edition of the _Epistole diui Pauli Apostoli_, Paris, 1517. The inquiry toward which I have been travelling is this, When did Henry Stephens first make use of the open Ratdoltian letter on dotted ground? (See Maitland's _Lambeth List_, p. 328. Dibdin's _Typog. Antiq._ vol. i., Prel. Disquis., p. xl.)

(32.) Is there extant any collation of the various exemplars of the _Alphabetum divini Amoris_? And has an incontrovertible opinion been formed as to the paternity of this tract? For the common error of ascribing it to Gerson is entirely inexcusable, as this Parisian chancellor is frequently alleged therein. The third volume of his works, set forth by Du Pin, in 1706, contains this "Treatise of the Elevation of the Soul to God," and the editor has left the blunder uncorrected in his _Eccles. Hist._ iii. 53. Again, can it be affirmed that the folio impression of Louvain, (Panzer, ix. 243.), in which Gerson's name occurs, was assuredly anterior to the small black-letter and {87} anonymous editions, likewise without dates? Two of the latter (one much older than the other) are of 12mo. size, in 8vo., as is also Bonaventura's _Stimulus divini Amoris_, printed in 1510 and 1517.

(33.) In what way can we detect the propounder of the _Notabilis expositio super canonem misse_? His work is of small folio size without mention of place or year; but it certainly proceeded from Nuremberg, and was it not one of the _primitiæ_ of Creusner?

(34.) Who is designated by the letters "G. N. N. D.," which are put at the head of the Epistle to Zuinglius, _De Magistris nostris Lovaniensibus, quot et quales sint_? And why has the _Vita S. Nicolai, sive Stultitiæ Exemplar_, originally attached to this performance, been omitted by Dr. Münch in his edition of the _Epistolæ obscurorum Vivorum, aliaque ævi decimi sexti Monimenta rarissima_, Leipzig, 1827? If he had reprinted this very desirable appendix, it would have furnished him with the date "Anno M.D.XX.," which would have prevented him from assigning this satirical composition to the year "1521." (Einl. p. 408.)

(35.) A student can scarcely be considered moderately well versed in ancient ecclesiastical documents who has neither read nor heard of the _Somnium Viridarii_; and we may wonder at, and pity, the learned Goldast, for having fallen into the extravagant mistake of attributing this Latin translation of the celebrated Dialogue, _Le Songe du Verger_, to "Philotheus Achillinus, Consiliarius Regius." (_Monarch. S. Rom. Imper_. i. 58. Hanov. 1612.) The question arises, How was he misled? Was it not through a strange misconception of a sentence in the _Silva Nuptialis_ of Nevizan, to which he refers in his preliminary "Dissertatio de Auctoribus?" This writer, who has been plentifully purified by the Roman _Index_, had cited the preface of an Italian poem, "Il Viridario," composed by his contemporary, Giovanni FILOTEO ACHILLINI; and is it thus that an author of the sixteenth century has got credit for an anonymous achievement of the fourteenth age? Goldastus has hardly been out-Heroded by those who have devised an individual named _Viridarius_, or "Le Sieur _du Vergier_." (See Baillet, _Déguisemens des Auteurs_, p. 479., and M. De la Monnoye's note, pp. 501-2.)

(36.) Is there not a transpositional misprint in the colophon of the old German _Life of S. Dorothea_, the so-called patroness of Prussia? For it would seem to be inevitable that we should endeavour to elicit 1492, and not 1512, from the following date: "Den Dingstag nach Gregory als man tzelete, M.CCCC. unde cxii." (Vid. Lilienthal, _Histor. B. Doroth_. p. 6. Dantisc., 1744.)

(37.):--

"The Original Manuscript of both volumes of this History will be deposited in the Cotton Library, by

"T. BURNETT."

Has this declaration been inserted, in the handwriting of Thomas Burnet, on the reverse of the title-page of the second volume, in all large-paper copies (and is it strictly limited to them?) of Bishop Burnet's _History of his own Time_, Lond., 1734? Compare the printed "Advertisement to the Reader" in the first volume, published in 1724.

(38.) Mr. T. R. Hampson, the author of _Medii Ævi Kalendarium_, which has, I believe, been commended in "NOTES AND QUERIES," informs us, in a precious production which he has lately issued on the _Religious Deceptions of the Church of Rome_, p. 30., that--

"Dr. Geddes, himself a learned Romanist, has selected many [remarkable errors] in his tract, _A Discovery of some Gross Mistakes in the Roman Martyrology_."

Only fancy a Romanist, learned or unlearned, having the effrontery to bestow so outrageous an appellation upon such an exploit. Does not the second volume of _Miscellaneous Tracts_, in which the said treatise may be seen, explicitly admonish us to remember that Michael Geddes, LL.D., was erst a chancellor of the Church of Sarum? "Quid Romæ faciam?" he upbraidingly asks in one of his title-pages, "mentiri nescio."

R. G.

* * * * *

Minor Queries.

_Bishops' Lands_.--In the month of September, 1642, the Parliament appointed a committee for the sale of Bishops' lands; and an account of some sold between 1647 and 1651, will be found in vol. i. of the _Collectanea Topographica_, 8vo., 1834. On the Restoration, a committee sat to inquire into these sales and make satisfaction. Bishop Kennet refers to a MS. containing the orders of the commissioners, but does not state where the MS. was deposited; nor has Sir Frederic Madden, who communicated that article to the _Collectanea_, met with it anywhere.

Can any of your correspondents give any information upon the subject, or say where may be found any accounts of the sales of the lands under the parliamentary orders, or of the proceedings of the commissioners appointed to make restitution upon the king's restoration?

G.

_The Barons of Hugh Lupus_.--It appears by the charter foundation to the abbey of St. Werburge at Chester, that several very eminent persons held the rank of Baron, under Hugh Lupus, Earl of Chester. The charter is signed by the earl himself and by the following barons: Richard, son of Hugh Lupus; Hervey, Bishop of Bangor; Ranulph de Meschines, nephew of the earl; Roger Bigod, Alan de Perci, William Constabular, Ranulph Dapifer, William Malbanc, Robert Fitz-Hugh, Hugh Fitz-Norman, Hamo de Masci, and Bigod de Loges. {88}

Can any of your readers inform us what befel the families and descendants of William Malbanc, and Bigod de Loges? The descendants of the rest are too well authenticated to need inquiry.

P.

_Can the Queen make a Gentleman?_--The following is from the Patent Rolls (13 Ric. II. pars. 1. m. 37. Prynne's _Fourth Institutes_, p. 68.):--

"Le Roy a tous ceux as queux cestes Lettres viendrount. Sachez qe come un Chivalier Fraunceys, a ceo qe nous Soums enformez, ad chalenge un nostre Liege, Johan de Kyngeston, a faire certeinez faitz et pointz darmes oveske le dit Chivalier. Nous a fyn qe le dit nostre liege soit le multz honerablement resceuz a faire puisse et perfourmir les ditz faitz et pointz d'armes _luy avons resceux en lestat de Gentile homme, et luy fait Esquier_. Et volons, qil soit conuz par armes, et porte desore enavant, Cestassavoir d'argent ove une, chapewe Dazure ovesque une plume Dostrich de goules. Et ceo a tous yeaux as queux y appertient nous notifions pu ycelles. En tesmoignance de quelle chose nous avons fait faire cestes noz lettres patentes. Done souz nostre grant Seal a nostre Paleys de Westm. le primer jour de Juyll.

"Par brief de Prive Seal."

H. WITHAM.

_Plafery_.--In Carew's masque of _Coelum Britannicum_, acted before the court at Whitehall, the 18th of February, 1633; Momus, arriving from Olympus immediately after Mercury, says to him--

"The hosts upon the highway cry out with open mouth upon you, for supporting _plafery_ in your train; which, though, as you are the god of petty larceny, you might protect, yet you know it is directly _against the new orders_, and oppose the reformation in diameter."

What is _plafery_? It is evident that the joking allusion to it was rather bold, for Mercury exclaims,--

"Peace, railer, bridle your licentious tongue, And let this presence teach you modesty."

B. R. I.

_St. John's Bridge Fair._--In what county in England was St. John's Bridge Fair held in the year 1614, and in what town in the county?

JOSEPHUS.

_Queries on Costume._--In Wilson's _Life of De Foe_ there is an anecdote of Charles II. concealing himself, when a fugitive from Worcester, beneath a lady's hoop, while his pursuers searched the house in which he had taken refuge. Were hoops worn so early as the year 1651? In the _Book of Costume_ I find no mention of them before the beginning of the eighteenth century; but I do not think this circumstance conclusive, as the "Lady of Rank" is not always very accurate.

Writing in the reign of Anne, she says, "Fans were now very much used," but omits to mention that they were in fashion long before, having been indispensable to Catherine of Braganza and her ladies at home and abroad, in the church and the theatre.

"Long gloves," says the Lady of Rank, "began to be worn by the ladies in this reign." (Queen Anne's).

"Twelve dozen Martial,[2] whole and half," says Evelyn:--were not _whole_ Martial gloves, long?

WEDSECNARF.

[Footnote 2: "_Martial._--The name of a famous French perfumer, emulating the Frangipani of Rome."--_Miscellaneous Writings of John Evelyn_, pp. 705. 711. 4to. edit. 1825.]

_Cum Grano Salis._--Sometime ago I asked from what figure is borrowed the expression of "Cum grano salis," and have had no reply. I can't find it in Erasmus. Once a very clever Cambridge man said that it meant "the thing must be swallowed with a little Attic salt to make it go down pleasantly." I don't think that he was right.

E. H.

_Earl of Clarendon's Daughter, Lucretia._--I should be very glad to learn whether the great Earl of Clarendon had a daughter named Lucretia. A friend of mine is descended from Dr. Marsh, archbishop of Armagh, who (it is said) married Lucretia, daughter of the Earl of Clarendon, and was the father of Lucretia, wife of Dr. McNeil, Dean of Down and Connor.

WEDSECNARF.

_Vandyke's Portrait of Lord Aubigny._--Can any of your correspondents give any information respecting a portrait, by Vandyke, of George Lord Aubigny, brother to the Duke of Richmond and Lennox? There is no doubt that such a picture once existed.

L.

_Foundation Stone of St. Mark's, Venice._--In vol. xxvi. of the _Archæologia_ is a paper by the late Mr. Douce, "On the foundation stone of the original church of St. Mark, at Venice," &c., accompanied by an engraving of the mutilated object itself, which also appears to have been submitted to the inspection of the Society of Antiquaries at the time the paper was read. The essay contains, in reality, very little information relating to the stone, and that little is of no very satisfactory kind; and I have never been able to divest myself of the idea that it bears somewhat the semblance of a hoax. Were I inclined to discuss the points which have suggested this notion, the necessity there is for brevity in corresponding with the Editor of "NOTES AND QUERIES" would preclude my doing it; but I must quote the following passage, which comes immediately after the statement that the original church, in the foundation of which this stone was deposited, was destroyed in 976.

"It is very possible that, in clearing away the rubbish of the old church, the original foundation stone was discovered, and, in some way or other, at present not traceable, preserved."

{89} If the fact is so, this stone, "of a circular form, the diameter six inches and a quarter, its thickness half an inch," must have been loose in the world for 858 years from its exhumation to 1834, when Mr. Douce's essay was read, and during that time has lost only the least important part of its inscription and ornaments.

Can any one say where this stone now is? When and where Mr. Douce obtained it? And, I must add, what history was attached to it when in his possession? for he was not a person likely to possess such an object without, at least, endeavouring to trace its history. On these points the essay contains not a word.

H. C. R.

_Coins of Richard Cromwell_.--Will any of your numismatical readers inform me whether there are any coins or medals known of Richard Cromwell, either during his chancellorship of Oxford, or his short protectorate of these realms?

BLOWER.

_Cataracts of the Nile_.--Seneca (_Nat. Quæst._ iv. 2.) tells a story of the natives suffering themselves to be carried down in sport, which Rollin says is confirmed by modern travellers; but can this be so? Can any one give the names of any of these travellers, and supply the blank thus left by the historian?

S. G.

_Paternoster Tackling.--Dancing Trenchmore._--What is the origin and meaning of this term? also of the phrase "Dancing Trenchmore?"

S. G.

_Hymns_.--Will some of your correspondents favour me with a copy of "Queen Mary's Lament," a translation of which appeared in Coxe's delightful _Christian Ballads_. Also Adam of St. Victor's "exquisite poem" on the Cross, referred to by Mr. Trench in his _Sacred Latin Poetry_?

JARLTZBERG.

_Camden and Curwen Families._--Camden, in his _Britannia_, art. "Cumberland," mentions his descent, by the mother's side, from the Curwens of Workington. Should any of your numerous correspondents be able to trace their descent, he would much oblige a member of that family.

H. C.

_Jartuare._--Can any of your readers oblige me with any account of a printed book called _Jartuare?_ Its date would be early in the sixteenth century, if not earlier.

W.(1.)

* * * * *

Replies.

JOHN BUNYAN AND HIS PORTRAIT.--DID BUNYAN KNOW HOBBES?

(Vol. ii., pp. 476. 518.; Vol. iii., p. 70.)

The best portrait of John Bunyan was drawn and engraved by White, to the _Holy War_, 1682. The original drawing, and a fine impression of the engraving, is preserved in the illustrated Grainger's _History of England_, in the print-room at the British Museum. It was copied in folio for Bunyan's _Works_. It has been recently copied for Mr. Bogue's elegant edition of the _Pilgrim_, and for the first complete edition of Bunyan's _Works_, now publishing by Messrs. Blackie and Sons, Glasgow. A fac-simile was engraved for an edition of the _Pilgrim_, by Mr. Pickering, 8vo. 1849.

That the great allegorist was not the author of _Heart's Ease_ in _Heart Trouble_ is perfectly clear, not only that the style is very different, but from the author being known. It was first published in 1690, under the initials of J. B., and the Epistle is dated "From the house of my pilgrimage, March, 1690." Bunyan died in August, 1688. Mr. Palmer, in his _Calamy_, vol. ii. p.16., states that the author was James Birdwood.

Whether Bunyan was acquainted with Hobbes depends upon the authority of a small volume of _Visions of Heaven and Hell_, published under the name of Bunyan. In this it is represented that he saw poor Hobbes in hell, and recognised an old acquaintance.

The earliest edition of _The Visions_ which I have been able to discover, is at "London: printed for Edward Midwinter, at the Looking Glass upon London Bridge, price, bound, one shilling;" without date. It was printed early in the reign of George I.; this is seen in an advertisement of books at the end, among which is _The Lives of the Monarchs of England to his present Majesty King George_. It is entitled, _The Visions of John Bunyan, being his last remains_. There is no account of either of this, or the _Heart's Ease_, in _The Struggler for the Preservation of Mr. John Bunyan's Labours_. This gives a list of forty-three works published by him, and of seventeen left by him at his decease for publication. If _The Visions_ were written by him, it must have escaped the search of his widow and surviving friends; but the style at once proves that it was not a production of his prolific pen. Bunyan's style was remarkably simple and plain. The following phrases extracted from _The Visions_ will carry conviction to every reader:--

"Mormo's of a future state," "metempsychosis of nature," "nefandous villanies," "diurnal and annual," "my visive faculty," "soul-transparent and diaphonous," "translucid ray," "terrene enjoyments," "our minds are clarified," "types both of the ante and post-diluvian world," "the tenuity thereof," "the aereal heavens," "effluxes of divine glory," "all ænigmas," "corruscations of his divine nature," "Solomon's mystick epithalamium," "the epiphonema," "propinquity in nature," "diversified refractions," "too bright and too diaphonous," "sweet odes and eniphalamics," "amarantine crown," "bright corruscancy," "palinodies and elegies," "no cataplasm," "eccentricks quite exterminate," "mutual assassinates," &c. &c.