Chapter 3

[If the Marquis of Ormonde will do us the favour to refer to our Number for the 8th March (No. 71.), he will find he has not been correctly informed with respect to the article to which his note relates. The family in which the papers are stated to exist, is clearly not that of the noble Marquis, but the family with which our correspondent "J. BS." states himself to be "connected;" and we hope J. BS. will, in justice both to himself and to Queen Elizabeth, adopt the course suggested in the following communication. We believe the warmest admirers of that great Queen cannot better vindicate her character than by making a strict inquiry into the grounds for the scandals, which, as has been already shown (_ante_, No. 62. p. 11.), were so industriously circulated against her.]

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J. BS. says papers are "said to exist in the family which prove the statement." As it is one of _scandal_ against a female, and that female a great sovereign, should he not ascertain the fact of the existence of any such paper, before supporting the scandal, and not leave a _tradition_ to be supported by another tradition, when a little trouble might show whether any papers exist, and when found what their value may be.

Q. G.

* * * * *

THE MISTLETOE ON THE OAK.

(Vol. ii., pp. 163. 214.; Vol. iii., p. 192.)

From having been a diligent searcher for the mistletoe on the oak, I may be allowed to make a few remarks upon the question. Is it ever found now on other trees? Now, it not only occurs abundantly on other trees, but it is exceedingly rare on the oak. This may be gathered from the following list, in which numbers have been used to express comparative frequency, as near as my observations enable me to form a judgment:--

_On Native Trees._

Apple (various sorts) 25 Poplar (mostly the black) 20 Whitethorn 10 Lime 4 Maple 3 Willow 2 OAK 1

_On Foreign Trees._

Sycamore 1 Robinia 1

From this it would appear that notwithstanding the BRITISH OAK grows everywhere, it is at present only favoured by the companionship of the mistletoe in equal ratio with two comparatively recently introduced trees. Indeed such objection does this parasite manifest to the brave old tree, even in his teens, that, notwithstanding a newly-planted line of mixed trees will become speedily attacked by it, the oak is certain to be left in his pride alone.

I have, however, seen the mistletoe on the oak in two instances during my much wandering about amid country scenes, especially of Gloucester and Worcester, two great mistletoe counties. One was pointed out to me by my friend, Mr. Lees, from whom we may expect much valuable information on this subject, in his forthcoming edition of the _Botanical Looker-out_--it was on a young tree, perhaps of fifty years, in Eastnor Park, on the Malvern chain. The other example is at Frampton-on-Severn, to which the President of the Cotteswold Naturalists' Club, T. B. L. Baker, Esq., and myself, were taken by Mr. Clifford, of Frampton. The tree is full a century old, and the branch, on which was a goodly bunch of the parasite, numbered somewhere about forty years. That the plant is propagated by seeds there can, I think, be but little doubt, as the seeds are so admirably adapted for the peculiar circumstances under which alone they can propagate; and the want of attention to the facts connected therewith, is probably the cause why the propagation of the mistletoe by artificial means is usually a failure.

I should be inclined to think that the mistletoe never was abundant on the oak; so that it may be that additional sanctity was conferred on the _Viscum guerneum_ on account of its great rarity.

JAMES BUCKMAN.

Cirencester.

_Mistletoe upon Oak_ (Vol. ii., p. 214.).--Besides the mistletoe-bearing oak mentioned by your correspondent, there is one in Lord Somers' park, near Malvern. It is a very fine plant, though it has been injured by sight-seeing marauders.

H. A. B.

Trinity College, Cambridge.

_Mistletoe_ (Vol. ii., pp. 163., 214.).--Do I understand your correspondent to ask whether mistletoe is found now except on oaks? The answer is, as at St. Paul's, "Circumspice." Just go into the country a little. The difficulty is generally supposed to be to find it _on_ the oak.

C. B.

* * * * *

UNIVERSALITY OF THE MAXIM, "LAVORA COME SE TU," ETC.

(Vol. iii., p. 188.)

I have not been able to trace this sentence to its source, but it would most probably be found in that admirable book, _Monosinii Floris Italicae Linguae_, 4to, Venet., 1604; or in Torriano's _Dictionary of Italian Proverbs and Phrases_, folio, Lond., 1666, a book of which Duplessis doubts the existence! Most of Jeremy Taylor's citations from the Italian are proverbial phrases. Your correspondent has probably copied the phrase as it stands in Bohn's edition of the _Holy Living and Dying_, but there is a trifling variation as it stands in the first edition of _Holy Living_, 1650:--

"Lavora come se tu _havesti_ a campar ogni hora: Adora come se tu _havesti_ a morir _alhora_."

The universality of this maxim, in ages and countries remote from each other, is remarkable. Thus we find it in the HITOPADESA:

"A wise man should think upon knowledge and wealth as if he were undecaying and immortal. He should practise duty as if he were seized by the hair of his head by Death."--Johnson's _Translation_, Intr. S.

So Democratis of Abdera, more sententiously:

"[Greek: Houtos peiro zen, hos kai oligon kai polun chronon biosomenos]."

Then descending to the fifteenth century, we {227} have it thus in the racy old Saxon _Laine Doctrinal_:

"Men schal leven, unde darumme sorgen, Alse men Staerven sholde morgen, Unde leren ernst liken, Alse men leven sholde ewigliken."

Where the author of the _Voyage autour de ma Chambre_, Jean Xavier Maitre, stumbled upon it, or whether it was a spontaneous thought, does not appear; but in his pleasing little book, _Lettres sur la Vieillesse_, we have it thus verbatim:

"Il faut vivre comme si l'on avoit a mourir demain, mais s'arranger en meme temps sa vie, autant que cet arrangement peut dependre de notre prevoyance, comme si l'on avoit devant soi quelques siecles, et meme une eternite d'existence."

Some of your correspondents may possibly be able to indicate other repetitions of this truly "golden sentence," which cannot be too often repeated, for we all know that

"A verse may reach him who a sermon flies."

S. W. SINGER.

* * * * *

Replies to Minor Queries.

_Tennyson's In Memoriam_ (Vol. iii., p. 142.).--

"Before the crimson-circled star Had fallen into her father's grave."

means "before the planet Venus had sunk into the sea."

In Smith's _Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology_, under the word Aphrodite or Venus, we find that--

"Some traditions stated that she had sprung from the foam ([Greek: aphros]) of the sea which had gathered around the mutilated parts of Uranus, that had been thrown into the sea by Kronos, after he had unmanned his father."--Hesiod. _Theog._ 190.

The allusion in the first stanza of _In Memoriam_ is, I think, to Shelley. The doctrine referred to is common to him and many other poets; but he perhaps inculcates it more frequently than any other. (See _Queen Mab_ sub finem. _Revolt of Islam_, canto xii. st. 17. _Adonais_, stanzas 39. 41. et passim.) Besides this, the phrase "clear harp" seems peculiarly applicable to Shelley, who is remarkable for the simplicity of his language.

X. Z.

_Tennyson's In Memoriam._--The word _star_ applies in poetry to all the heavenly bodies; and therefore, to the _crescent moon_, which is often near enough to the sun to be within or to be _encircled_ by, the crimson colour of the sky about sunset; and the sun may, figuratively, be called _father_ of the moon, because he dispenses to her all the light with which she shines; and, moreover, because _new_, or waxing moons, must _set_ nearly in the same point of the horizon as the sun; and because that point of the horizon in which a heavenly body sets, may, figuratively, be called its _grave_; therefore, I believe the last two lines of the stanza of the poem numbered lxxxvii., or 87, in Tennyson's _In Memoriam_, quoted by W. B. H., to mean simply--

_We returned home between the hour of sunset and the setting of the moon, then not so much as a week old._

ROBERT SNOW.

_Bishop Hooper's Godly Confession, &c._ (Vol. iii., p. 169.).--The Rev. CHARLES NEVINSON may be informed that there are two copies of the edition of the above work for which he inquires, in the library of Trinity College, Dublin.

TYRO.

Dublin.

_Machell's MS. Collections for Westmoreland and Cumberland_ (Vol. iii., p. 118.).--In reply to the inquiry of EDWARD F. RIMBAULT, that gentleman may learn the extent to which the _Machell MS. collections of the Rev. Thomas Machell, who was chaplain to King Charles II._, have been examined, and published, by referring, to Burn and Nicholson's _History of Westmoreland and Cumberland_, edit. 1778. A great part of the MS. is taken up with an account of the antiquary's own family, the "Mali Catuli," or Machell's Lords of Crakenthorpe in Westmoreland. the papers in the library of Carlisle contain only copies and references to the original papers, which are carefully preserved by the present representatives of the family. There are above one thousand deeds, charters, and other documents which I have carefully translated and collated with a view to their being printed privately for the use of the family, and I shall feel pleasure in replying to any inquiry on the subject. Address:

G.P. at the Post Office, Barrow upon Humber, Lincolnshire.

Two impressions of the seal of the Abbey of Shapp (anciently Hepp), said not to be attainable by the editors of the late splendid edition of the _Monasticon_, are preserved in the Machell MSS.

_Oration against Demosthenes_ (Vol. iii., p. 141.).--For the information of your correspondent KENNETH R. H. MACKENZIE, I transcribe the title of the oration against Demosthenes, for which he makes inquiry, which was not "privately printed" as he supposes, but _published_ last year by Mr. J. W. Parker.

"The Oration of Hyperides against Demosthenes, respecting the Treasure of Harpalus. The Fragments of the Greek Text, now first edited from the Fac-simile of the MS. discovered at Egyptian Thebes in 1847; together with other Fragments of the same Oration cited in Ancient Writers. With a Preliminary Dissertation and Notes, and a Fac-simile of a Portion of the MS. By Churchill Babington, M.A. London: J. W. Parker, 1850."

The discovery of the MS. was made by Mr. {228} A. C. Harris of Alexandria, who placed a fac-simile in the hand of Mr. Churchill Babington, who edited it as above described.

My information is derived from an article on the work in the _Christian Remembrancer_ for October, 1850, to which I refer MR. MACKENZIE for further particulars.

TYRO.

Dublin

[MR. EDWARD SHEARE JACKSON, B.A., to whom we are indebted for a similar reply, adds, "Mr. Harris contributed a paper on the MS. to the Royal Society of Literature"]

Mr. Sharpe has also published "Fragments of Orations in Accusation and Defence of Demosthenes, respecting the money of Harpalus, arranged and translated," in the _Journal of the Philological Society_, vol. iv.; and the German scholars Boeckh (in the _Hallische Litteratur-Zeitung_ for 1848) and Sauppe have also written critical notices on the fragments; but whether their notices include the old and new fragments, I am unable to say, having only met with a scanty reference to their learned labours.

J. M.

Oxford.

_Borrow's Danish Ballads_ (Vol. iii., p. 168).--The following is the title of Mr. Borrow's book, referred to by BRUNO:--

"Targum; or, Metrical Translations from Thirty Languages and Dialects. By George Borrow. 'The Raven ascended to the Nest of the Nightingale.'--Persian Poem. St. Petersburgh. Printed by Schulz and Beneze. 1835."

R. W. F.

_Borrow's Danish Ballads._--The title of the work is--

"Romantic Ballads, translated from the Danish, and Miscellaneous Pieces; by George Borrow. 8vo. Printed by S. Wilkin, Norwich; and published at London by John Taylor, 1826."

In the preface it is stated that the ballads are translated from Oehlensloeger, and from the _Kiaempe Viser_, the old Norse book referred to in _Lavengro_.

[mu].

_Head of the Saviour_ (Vol. iii., p. 168.).--The correspondent who inquires about the "true likeness" of the Saviour exposed in some of the London print-shops, is not perhaps aware that there is preserved in the church of St. Peter's at Rome a much more precious and genuine portrait than the one to which he alludes--a likeness described by its possessors as "far more sublime and venerable than any other, since it was neither painted by the hands of men nor angels, but by the divinity himself who makes both men and angels." It is not delineated upon wood or canvass, ivory, glass, or stucco, but upon "a pocket handkerchief lent him by a holy woman named Veronica, to wipe his face upon at the crucifixion" (Aringhi, _Roma Subterran._, vol. ii. p. 543.). When the handkerchief was returned it had this genuine portrait imprinted on its surface. It is now one of the holiest of relics preserved in the Vatican basilica, where there is likewise a magnificent altar constructed by Urban VIII., with an inscription commemorating the fact, a mosaic above, illustrative of the event, and a statue of the holy female who received the gift, and who is very properly inscribed in the Roman catalogue of saints under the title of ST. VERONICA. All this is supported by "pious tradition," and attested by authorities of equal value to those which establish the identity of St. Peter's chair. The only difficulty in the matter lies in this, that the woman Veronica never had any corporeal existence, being no other than the name by which the picture itself was once designated, viz., the VERA ICON, or "True Image" (Mabillon, _Iter. Ital._, p. 88.). This narrative will probably relieve your correspondent from the trouble of further inquiries by enabling him to judge for himself whether "there is any truth" about the other true image.

A. R., Jun.

In your 70th Number I perceived that some correspondent asked, "What is the truth respecting a legend attached to the head of our Saviour for some time past in the print-shops?" I ask the same question. True or false, I found in a work entitled _The Antiquarian Repertory_, by Grose, Astle, and others, vol. iii., an effigy of our Saviour, much inferior in all respects to the above, with the following attached:--

"This present figure is the similitude of our Lord [=IHV], oure Saviour imprinted in amirvld by the predecessors of the greate turke, and sent to the Pope Innosent the 8. at the cost of the greate turke for a token for this cawse, to redeme his brother that was taken presonor."

This was painted on board. The Rev. Thomas Thurlow, of Baynard's Park, Guildford, has another painted on board with a like inscription, to the best of my recollection: his has a date on it, I think.

Pope Innocent VIII. was created Pope in 1484, and died in 1492.

The variation in the three effigies is an argument against the truth of the story, or the two on board must have been ill-executed. That in the shops is very beautiful.

The same gentleman possesses a Bible, printed by Robert Barker, and by the assignees of John Bill, 1633; and on a slip of paper is, "Holy Bible curiously bound in tapestry by the nuns of Little Gidding, 12mo., Barker."

In a former Number a person replies that a Bible, bound by the nuns of Gidding for Charles I., now belongs to the Marquis of Salisbury. Query the _size of that_?

E. H.

Norwich, March 9.

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_Lady Bingham_ (Vol. iii., p. 61.).--If C. W. B. will refer to the supplementary volume of Burke's _Landed Gentry_, p. 159, he will see that Sarah, daughter of John Heigham, of Giffords Hall, co. Suffolk (son of William Heigham, of Giffords, second son of Clement Heigham, of Giffords, second son of Thomas Heigham, of Heigham, co. Suffolk) married, first, Sir Richard Bingham, Knt., of Melcombe Bingham, co. Dorset, governor of Connaught in 1585, &c.; and secondly, Edward Waldegrave, of Lawford, co. Essex. This, I presume, is the lady whose maiden name he enquires for.

C. R. M.

_Shakepeare's Use of Captious_ (Vol. ii., p. 354.).--In _All's Well that Ends Well_, Act I. Sc. 3.:

"I know I love in vain; strive against hope; Yet in this _captious_ and intenible sieve, I still pour in the waters of my love, And lack not to lose still:"

has not MR. SINGER, and all the other commentators upon this passage, overlooked a most apparent and satisfactory solution? Is it not evident that the printer simply omitted the vowel "a," and that the word, as written by Shakespeare, was "cap_a_tious," the "t," according to the orthography of the time, being put for the "c" used by modern writers?

With great deference to former critics, I think this emendation is the most probable, as it accords with the sentiment of Helena, who means to depict her _vast_ but unretentive sieve, into which she poured the waters of her love.

W. F. S.

P.S.--I hope MR. SINGER and J. S. W. will tell us what they think of this proposed alteration.

Bognor, Feb, 22. 1851.

_Tanthony_ (Vol. iii., p. 105.).--I would suggest that the "tanthony" at Kimbolton is a corruption or mis-pronunciation of "tintany," _tintinnabulum_. I have failed to discover any legend of St. Anthony, confirmatory of ARUN'S suggestion.

A.

Newark, Notts., Feb. 12.

_By the bye_ (Vol. iii., p 73.).--Is your correspondent S. S. not aware that the phrase "Good bye" is a contraction of our ancestors' more devotional one of "God be wi' ye!"

D. P. W.

Rotherhithe, Jan. 21. 1851.

_Lama Beads_ (Vol. iii., p. 115.).--It is a pretty bold assertion that Lama beads are derived from the Lamas of Asia. _Lamma_, according to Jamieson, is simply the Scotch for _amber_. He says _Lamertyn steen_ means the same in Teutonic. I do not find it in Wachter's _Lexicon_.

Your correspondent's note is a curious instance of the inconvenience of half quotation. He says the Lamas are an order of priests among the Western Tartars. I was surprised at this, since their chief strength, as everybody knows, is in Thibet. On referring to Rees's _Cyclopaedia_, I found that the words are taken from thence; but they are not wrong there, since, by the context they have reference to China.

C. B.

_Language given to Men, &c._ (Vol. i., p. 83.).--The saying that language was given to men to conceal their thoughts is generally fathered upon Talleyrand at present. I did not know it was in Goldsmith; but the real author of it was Fontenelle.

C. B.

_Daresbury, the White Chapel of England_ (Vol. iii., p. 60.).--This _jeu-d'esprit_ was an after-dinner joke of a learned civilian, not less celebrated for his wit than his book-lore. Some stupid blockhead inserted it in the newspapers, and it is now unfortunately chronicled in your valuable work. It is not at all to be wondered at that "the people in the neighbourhood know nothing on the subject."

ECHO.

_Holland Land_ (Vol. ii., pp. 267. 345.; Vol. iii., pp. 30. 70.).--Were not the Lincolnshire estates of Count Bentinck, a Dutch nobleman who came over with William III., and the ancestor of the late Lord George Bentinck, M.P. for Lynn Regis, denominated _Little Holland_, which he increased by reclaiming large portions in the Dutch manner from the Wash?

E. S. TAYLOR.

_Passage in the Tempest_ (Vol. ii., p. 259, &c.).--I do not profess to offer an opinion as to the right reading; but with reference to the suggestion of A. E. B. (p. 338.) that it means--

"Most busy when least I do it,"

or--

"Most busy when least employed,"

allow me to refer you to the splendid passage in the _De Officiis_, lib. iii. cap. i., where Cicero expresses the same idea:--

"Pub. Scipionem,... eum, qui primus Africanus appellatus sit, dicere solitum scripsit Cato,... _Nunquam se minus otiosum esse, quam cum otiosus_; nec minus solum, quam cum solus esset. Magnifica vero vox, et magno viro, ac sapiente digna; quae declarat, illum et in otio de negotiis cogitare, et in solitudine secum loqui solitum: ut neque cessaret unquam, et interdum colloquio alterius non egeret."

ACHE.

_Damasked Linen_ (Vol. iii., p. 13.).--I believe it has always been customary to damask the linen used by our royal family with appropriate devices. I have seen a cloth of Queen Anne's, with the "A. R." in double cypher, surrounded by buds and flowers; and have myself a cloth with a view of London, and inscribed "Der Konig Georg II.," which was purchased at Brentford, no doubt having come from Kew adjoining.

H. W. D.

_Straw Necklaces_ (Vol. ii., p. 511.).--Having only lately read the "NOTES AND QUERIES" (in fact, this being the first number subscribed for), I do not know the previous allusion. It makes me mention a curious custom at Carlisle, of the {230} servants who wish to be hired going into the marketplace of Carlisle, or as they call it "Carel," with a straw in their mouths. It is fast passing away, and _now_, instead of keeping the straw constantly in the mouth, they merely put it in a few seconds if they see any one looking at them. Anderson, in his _Cumberland Ballads_, alludes to the custom:--

"At Carel I stuid wi' a strae i' my mouth, The weyves com roun me in clusters: 'What weage dus te ax, canny lad?' says yen."

H. W. D.

_Library of the Church of Westminster_ (Vol. iii., p. 152.).--The statement here quoted from the _Delices de la Grande Bretagne_ is scarcely likely to be correct. We all know how prone foreigners are to misapprehension, and therefore, how unsafe it is to trust to their observations. In this case, may not the description of the _Bibliotheque Publique_, which was open night and morning, during the sittings of the courts of justice, have originated merely from the rows of booksellers' stalls in Westminster-hall?

J. G. N.

_The Ten Commandments_ (Vol. iii., p. 166.).--Waterland (vol. vi. p. 242., 2nd edition, Oxford, 1843) gives a copy of the Decalogue taken from an old MS. In this the first two commandments are embodied in one. Leighton, in his _Exposition of the Ten Commandments_, when speaking on the point of the manner of dividing them, refers in a vague manner to Josephus and Philo.

R. V.

_Sitting crosslegged to avert Evil_ (Vol. ii.,p. 407.).--Browne says:--

"To set crosselegg'd, or with our fingers pectinated or shut together, is accounted bad, and friends will perswade us from it. The same conceit religiously possessed the ancients, as is observable from Pliny: 'Poplites alternis genibus imponere nefas olim;' and also from Athenaeus, that it was an old veneficious practice."--_Vulg. Err._, lib. v. cap. xxi. Sec. 9.

ACHE.

_George Steevens_ (Vol. iii., p. 119.).--A. Z. wishes to know whether a memoir of George Steevens, the Shakspearian commentator, was ever published, and what has become of the manuscripts.

I believe the late Sir James Allen Park wrote his life, but whether for public or private circulation I cannot tell.