Chapter 2

Permit me to add to this Query another remark. I am engaged in writing a Life of Admiral Blake, and shall be extremely grateful to any of your correspondents who can and will direct me, either through the medium of your columns or by private communication, to any new sources of information respecting his character and career. A meagre pamphlet being the utmost that has yet been given to the memory of this great man, the entire story of his life has to be built up from the beginning. Fragments of papers, scraps of information, however slight, may therefore be of material value. A date or a name may contain an important clue, and will be thankfully acknowledged. Of course I do not wish to be referred to information contained in well-known collections, such as Thurloe, Rushworth, Whitelock, and the Parliamentary Histories, nor to the Deptford MSS. in the Tower, the Admiralty papers in the State Paper Office, or the Ashmole MSS. at Oxford. I am also acquainted, of course, with several papers in the national collection of MSS. at the British Museum throwing light on the subject; but while these MSS. remain in their present state, it would be very rash in any man to say what is _not_ to be found in them. Should any one, in reading for his own purposes, stumble on a fact of importance for me in these MSS., I shall be grateful for a communication; but my appeal is rather made to the possessors of old family papers. There must, I think, be many letters--though he was a brief and abrupt correspondent--of the admiral's still existing in the archives of old Puritan families. These are the materials of history of which I am most in need.

HEPWORTH DIXON.

84. St. John's Wood Terrace.

* * * * *

Minor Queries.

_John Holywood the Mathematician._--Is the birthplace of this distinguished scholar known? Leland, Bale, and Pits assert him to have been born at Halifax, in Yorkshire; Stanyhurst says, at Holywood, near Dublin; and according to Dempster and Mackenzie, at Nithsdale, in Scotland.

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

_Essay on the Irony of Sophocles, &c._--Who is the author of the _Essay on the Irony of Sophocles_, which has been termed the most exquisite piece of criticism in the English language?

Is it Cicero who says,

"Malo cum Platone errare, quam cum aliis rectè sentire?"

And who embodied the somewhat contradictory maxim,--

"Amicus Plato, sed magis amica veritas?"

NEMO.

_Meaning of Mosaic._--What is the exact meaning and derivation of the word Mosaic as a term in art?

H. M. A.

{390}

_Stanedge Pole._--Can any one inform me in what part of Yorkshire the antiquarian remains of Stanedge Pole are situated; and where the description of them is to be found?

A. N.

_Names of the Ferret._--I should be much obliged by any one of your readers informing me what peculiar names are given to the male and female ferret? Do they occur any where in any author? as by knowing how the words are spelt, we may arrive at their etymology.

T. LAWRENCE.

Ashby-de-la-Zouch.

_Colfabias._--Can any of your learned correspondents furnish the origin and meaning of this word? It was the name of the _privy_ attached to the Priory of Holy Trinity in Dublin; and still is to be seen in old leases of that religious house (now Christ Church Cathedral), spelled sometimes as above, and other times _coolfabioos_.

The present dean and chapter are quite in the dark upon the subject. I hope you will be able to give us a little light from your general stock.

A CH. CH. MAN.

Dublin.

_School of the Heart._--This work consists of short poems similar in character and merit to Quarles's _Emblems_, and adorned with cuts of the same class. I have at hand none but modern editions, and in these the production is ascribed to Quarles. But Montgomery, in his _Christian Poet_, quotes the _School of the Heart_, without explanation, as the work of Thomas Harvey, 1647. Can any of your readers throw light on this matter?

S. T. D.

_Milton and the Calves-head Club._--I quote the following from _The Secret History of the Calves-head Club: or the Republican Unmasqu'd_, 4to., 1703. The author is relating what was told him by "a certain active Whigg, who, in all other respects, was a man of probity enough."

"He further told me that Milton, and some other creatures of the Commonwealth, had instituted this Club [the Calves-head Club], as he was inform'd, in opposition to Bp. Juxon, Dr. Sanderson, Dr. Hammond, and other divines of the Church of England, who met privately every 30th of January; and though it was under the Time of Usurpation, had compil'd a private Form of Service for the Day, not much different from what we now find in the Liturgy."

Do any of Milton's biographers mention his connexion with this club? Does the form of prayer compiled by Juxon, Sanderson, and Hammond exist?

K. P. D. E.

_David Rizzio's Signature._--Can any reader of "NOTES AND QUERIES" furnish the applicant with either a fac-simile or a minute description of the signature and handwriting of David Rizzio? The application is made in order to the verification of a most remarkable alleged instance of clairvoyance, recorded at large in a volume on that and its kindred subjects just published by Dr. Gregory of Edinburgh.

F. K.

_Lambert Simnel--Was this his real Name?_--It occurs to me that we are not in possession of the real name of Lambert Simnel, the famous claimant of the crown of England. We are told that he was the son of a baker; and we learn from Johnson's _Dictionary_ that the word "simnel" signified a kind of sweet-bread or cake. Now, considering the uncertainty and mutability of surnames in former times, I am led to suspect that "Simnel" may have been a nickname first applied to his father, in allusion to his trade; and I am strengthened in my suspicion by not finding any such name as "Simnel" in any index of ancient names. Could any of your correspondents throw light on this question, or tell whether Lambert left any posterity?

T.

_Honor of Clare, Norfolk._--I have seen a letter, dated about 1702, in the possession of a gentleman of this town, which alludes "_To His Majesty's Honor of Clare_;" and I shall feel obliged if any of your correspondents can render me any information as to whether there are any documents relative to this "_Honor_" in existence: and if so, where they are to be met with? for I much wish to be informed what fragments were made from _South Green_ (a part of this town), which was held of the above mentioned "Honor," and by whom made; and further, who is the collector of them at this period?

J. N. C.

_Sponge._--When was the sponge of commerce first known in England?

THUDT.

_Babington's Conspiracy._--Miss Strickland, in her life of Queen Elizabeth (_Lives of the Queens of England_, vol. vii. p. 33.), after describing the particulars of this plot, adds in a Note,--

"After his condemnation, Babington wrote a piteous letter of supplication to Elizabeth, imploring her mercy for the sake of his wife and children."--Rawlinson _MSS._, Oxford, vol. 1340. No. 55. f. 19.

A copy of a letter to which the description given by Miss Strickland would apply, has been lately found among some papers originally belonging to Lord Burleigh; and it would be very desirable to compare it with the letter said to be in the Rawlinson collection. I have, however, authority for saying that the reference above quoted is incorrect. I should be very glad indeed to find whether the letter referred to by Miss Strickland is printed in any collection, or to trace the authority for the reference given in the _Lives of the Queens_. The MS. copies in the British Museum are known.

J. BT.

_Family of Sir John Banks._--R. H. wishes to be informed how many children were left by {391} Sir John Banks, Lord Chief Justice in Charles I.'s reign: also, whether any one of these settled at Keswick: and also, whether Mr. John Banks of that place, the philosopher, as he was called, was really a lineal descendant of Sir John B., as he is stated to have been by the author of an old work on the Lakes?

R. C. H. H.

_Sewell, Meaning of._--It is usual in some deer-parks in different parts of England, but more especially, as far as my own knowledge goes, in Kent, for the keepers, when they wish to drive and collect the deer to one spot, to lay down for this purpose what they call _sewells_ (I may be wrong as to the orthography), which are simply long lines with feathers attached at intervals, somewhat after the fashion of the tails of kites. These "sewells," when stretched at length on the ground, the herd of deer will very rarely pass; but on coming up will check themselves suddenly when in full career, and wheel about. The same contrivance was in use in Virgil's time for the same purpose, under the name of _formido_ (_Geor._ iii. 372.):--"Puniceæve agitant pavidos formidine pennæ." Can any of your readers help me to the origin of the modern term _sewell_?

H. C. K.

---- Rectory, Hereford.

_Abel represented with Horns._--In one of the windows of King's College Chapel, the subject of which is the Death of Abel, the artist has given him a pair of _horns_. Can any of your readers explain this?

C. J. E.

* * * * *

Minor Queries Answered.

_The Fifteen O's._--In the third part of the "Sermon of Good Works" is this passage:

"Let us rehearse some other kinds of papistical superstitions and abuses; as of beads, of lady psalters and rosaries, _of fifteen oos_, of St. Barnard's verses, of St. Agathe's letters, of purgatory, of masses satisfactory, of stations and jubilees, of feigned relics, of hallowed beads, bells, bread, water, palms, candles, fire, and such other; of superstitious fastings, of fraternities, of pardons, with such like merchandise, which were so esteemed and abused to the prejudice of God's glory and commandments, that they were made most high and most holy things, whereby to attain to the eternal life, or remission of sin."

I cite the above from the Parker Society's edition of Archbishop Cranmer's _Miscellaneous Writings and Letters_, p. 148. It occurs also in Professor Corrie's edition of the _Homilies_, p. 58. I shall be glad to be informed what is meant by the "fifteen Oo's," or "fifteen O's" (for so they are spelt in the above edition of the _Homilies_).

C. H. COOPER

Cambridge, April 14. 1851.

[The fifteen O's are fifteen prayers commencing with the letter O, and will be found in _Horæ Beatissime Virginis Marie, secundum usum ecclesiæ Sarum_, p. 201. edit. 1527.]

_Meaning of Pightle._--As I dare say you number some Suffolk men among your readers, would any of them kindly inform me the meaning and derivation of the word "pightle," which is always applied to a field adjoining the farm-houses in Suffolk?

PHILO-STEVENS.

[Phillips, in his _New World of Words_, has "PIGLE or PIGHTEL, a small Parcel of Land enclosed with a Hedge, which in some Parts of England is commonly call'd a Pingle."]

_Inscription on a Guinea of George III._--Round the reverse of a guinea of George III., 1793, are the following initials:--"M. B. F. ET H. REX--F. D. B. ET L. D. S. R. I. A. T. ET E." The earlier letters are sufficiently intelligible; but I should be glad to learn the meaning of the whole inscription.

J. H. C.

Adelaide, South Australia.

[Of the Faith Defender, of Brunswick and Lunenburg Duke, of the Holy Roman Empire Arch-Treasurer and Elector.]

_Meaning of Crambo._--Sir Thomas Browne (_Religio Medici_, part ii. § 15. ed. 1678) says:

"I conclude, therefore, and say, there is no happiness under (or, as Copernicus will have it, above) the sun, nor any Crambo in that repeated verity and burthen of all the wisdom of _Solomon_, _All is vanity and vexation of spirit_."

Query, What is the meaning of _crambo_ here, and is it to be met with elsewhere with a similar meaning?

J. H. C.

Adelaide, South Australia.

[The words "nor any Crambo" mean that the sentiment expressed by Solomon is a truth which cannot be too often repeated. Crabbe says, "_Crambo_ is a play, in rhyming, in which he that repeats a word that was said before forfeits something." In all the MSS. and editions of the _Religio Medici_, 1642, the words "nor any Crambo," are wanting. See note on the passage in the edition edited by Simon Wilkin, F.L.S.]

* * * * *

Replies.

JOHN TRADESCANT PROBABLY AN ENGLISHMAN, AND HIS VOYAGE TO RUSSIA IN 1618.

(Vol. iii., pp. 119. 286. 353.)

DR. RIMBAULT justly observes that "the history of the Tradescants is involved in considerable obscurity." He does not, however, seem to have been aware that some light has been thrown on that of the elder John Tradescant by the researches of Dr. Hamel, in his interesting Memoir published in the _Transactions of the Imperial Academy of St. Petersburg in 1847_, with the following title:--"Tradescant der Æltere 1618 in Russland. Der {392} Handelsverkehr zwischen England und Russland in seiner Entstehung," &c.

DR. RIMBAULT'S note contains a good epitome of the most obvious English notices respecting the Tradescants; but while correcting the errors of others, he has himself fallen into one important mistake, in stating that "Old John Tradescant died in 1652;" for that is the date of the death of his grandson, John, who died young. Old John died in 1638, leaving a son, also named John, who was born in 1608, and died in 1662, having survived his only son ten years; and, having no heir to his treasures, he had previously conveyed them, by deed of gift, to Elias Ashmole, who seems to have contrived to make himself agreeable to him by his pursuits as a virtuoso, and by his alchemical and astrological fancies. When Dr. Hamel was in England, I had the pleasure of indicating to him the site of "Tradescant's Ark" in South Lambeth. It was situate on the east side of the road leading from Vauxhall to Stockwell, nearly opposite to what was formerly called Spring Lane. Ashmole built a large brick house near that which had been Tradescant's, out of the back of part of which he made offices. The front part of it became the habitation of the well-known antiquary, Dr. Ducarel. It still remains as two dwellings; the one, known as "Turret House," is occupied by John Miles Thorn, Esq., and the other, called "Stamford House," is the dwelling of J. A. Fulton, Esq.

In his indefatigable researches to elucidate the early intercourse between England and Russia, Dr. Hamel's attention was accidentally called to the Tradescants and their Museum; and the following passage in Parkinson's _Paradisus Terrestris_, p. 345. (Art. "Neesewort," then called _Elleborus albus_), led to the discovery of a relation of Old John's voyage to Russia:--

"This (says Parkinson) grows in many places in Germany, and likewise in certain places in Russia, in such abundance, that, according to the relation of that worthy, curious, and diligent searcher and preserver of all nature's rarities and varieties, my very good friend John Tradescante, of whom I have many times before spoken, a moderately large ship (as he says) might be laden with the roots thereof, which he there saw on a certain island."

The same notice, in other words, also occurs in Parkinson's _Theatrum_, p. 218.

In searching among the MSS. in the Ashmolean Museum, Dr. Hamel bore this passage in memory, and one MS., thus described in Mr. Black's excellent catalogue, No. 824., xvi., contained confirmatory matter:

"A Voiag of Ambassad undertaken by the Right Honnorabl S^r Dudlie Diggs, in the year 1618."

"This curious narrative of the voyage round the North Cape to Archangel, begins with a list of the chief persons employed in the embassy, and contains observations of the weather, and on the commercial, agricultural, and domestic state of Russia at that time. It is written in a rude hand, and by a person unskilled in composition. The last half page contains some chronological notes and other stuff, perhaps written by the same hand."

Thus far Mr. Black. The full title of the MS. is,--

"A Viag of Ambassad undertaken by the Right Honnorabl S^r Dudlie Diggs in the year 1618, being atended on withe 6 Gentillmen, whiche beare the nam of the king's Gentillmen, whose names be heere notted. On M. Nowell, brother to the Lord Nowell, M. Thomas Finche, M. Woodward, M. Cooke, M. Fante, and M. Henry Wyeld, withe every on of them ther man. Other folloers, on Brigges, Interpreter, M. Jams, an Oxford man, his Chaplin, on M. Leake his Secretary, withe 3 Scots; on Captain Gilbert and his Son, withe on Car, also M. Mathew De Quester's Son, of Filpot Lane, in London, the rest his own retenant, some 13 _whearof_ (_Note on Jonne an Coplie wustersher men_) M. Swanli of Limhouse, master of the good Ship called the Dianna of Newcastell, M. Nelson, part owner of Newe Castell."

Dr. Hamel says:

"What the words in Italics may signify is not quite clear, but that 'on Jonne' must relate to Tradescante himself. Perhaps this passage may lead to the discovery that Tradescant did not, as it has been conjectured, come from Holland, but that he was a native of Worcestershire. The name Tradescant might be an assumed one (it was also written _Tradeskin_, which might be interpreted _Fellmonger_)."

From documents in the archives at Moscow, Dr. Hamel recovered the Christian names, and a list of Sir Dudley Digges' attendants in this voyage, which corresponds with that in the MS., thus:--_Arthur_ Nowell, _Thomas_ Woodward, _Adam_ Cooke, _Joseph_ Fante, _Thomas_ Leake, _Richard_ James, _George_ Brigges, _Jessy_ De Quester, _Adam_ Jones, _Thomas_ Wakefield, _John_ Adams, _Thomas_ Crisp, _Leonard_ Hugh, and JOHN COPLIE. This last must therefore have designated _John Tradescant_ himself, who was certainly there.

Sir Dudley Digges, to whom Tradescant seems to have attached himself in order to obtain knowledge of the plants and other natural curiosities of Russia, was sent by King James I. to the Czar Michael Fedorowitsch, who had in the previous year despatched an embassy to the king, principally to negotiate for a loan. This ambassador, Wolünsky, returned at the same time, in another vessel accompanying that of Sir Dudley.

Dr. Hamel in his memoir has given considerable extracts from the MS. narrative of the voyage, which show that Tradescant was an accurate observer not only of objects connected with his studies of phytology and natural history, but of other matters. Parkinson has justly styled him "a painful industrious searcher and lover of all natural varieties;" and elsewhere says: "My very {393} good friend, John Tradescantes, has wonderfully laboured to obtain all the rarest fruits hee can heare of in any place of Christendome, Turky, yea, or the whole world." The passages in the journal of his voyage, which prove it to be indubitably his, are numerous, but the one which first struck Dr. Hamel was sufficient; for in following the narrator on the Dwina, and the islands there, and, among others, to Rose Island, he found this note, "Helebros albus, enoug to load a ship." There are, however, others confirmatory beyond a doubt. Parkinson, in his _Paradisus Terrestris_, p. 528., has the following passage:--

"There is another (strawberry) very like unto this (the Virginia strawberry, which carrieth the greatest leafe of any other except the Bohemian), that John Tradescante brought with him from Brussels (l. Russia) long ago, and in seven years could never see one berry ripe on all sides, but still the better part rotten, although it would flower abundantly every yeare, and beare very large leaves."

Tradescant mentions that he also saw strawberries to be sold in Russia, but could never get of the plants, though he saw the berries three times at Sir D. Digges's table; but as they were in nothing differing from ours, but only less, he did not much seek after them. It is most probable that he brought seed, as he did of another berry, of which he sent part, he tells us, to his correspondent Vespasian Robin at Paris.

Of a man to whom the merit is due of having founded the earliest Museum of Natural History and Rarities of Art in England, and who possessed one of the first, and at the same the best, Botanic Garden, every little particular must be interesting, and it would be pleasing to find that he was an Englishman, and not a foreigner. The only ground for the latter supposition is, I believe, the assertion of Anthony à Wood, that he was a Fleming or a Dutchman. The name Tradescant is, however, neither Flemish nor Dutch, and seems to me much more like an assumed English pseudonyme. That he was neither a Dutchman nor a Fleming will, I think, be obvious from the following passage in the narration of his travels:

"Also, I haue been tould that theare growethe in the land bothe tulipes and narsisus. By a Brabander I was tould it, thoug by his name I should rather think him a Holander. His name is Jonson, and hathe a house at Archangell. He may be eyther, for he [is] always dr[=u]ke once in a day."

Now, had Tradescant himself been a Fleming or a Dutchman, he would at least have been able to speak decisively on this occasion; to say nothing of the vice of intemperance which he attributes to the natives of those countries. Again, it is quite clear that this journal of travels was written by Tradescant; yet that name does not appear either in the MS. or in the Russian archives: but we have _John Coplie_ in both, with the indication in the MS. that he was _a Worcestershire man_. Let us therefore, on these grounds, place him in the list of English worthies to whom we owe a debt of gratitude. But supposing _Tradescant_ to have been his real name, it is quite evident that he travelled under the name of _John Coplie_; and it is perhaps vain to speculate upon the reasons for the assumption of a pseudonyme either way.

Dr. Richard James, who accompanied Sir Dudley Digges as chaplain, appears, from Turner's account of his MSS., which are deposited in the Bodleian, to have left behind him a MS. account of his travels in Russia, in five sheets; but his MS. seems to have been lost or mislaid in that vast emporium, or we might have some confirmation from it respecting Tradescant.

South Lambeth was in former times one of the most agreeable and salubrious spots in the vicinity of London, and at the time when Tradescant first planted his garden he must have had another worthy and distinguished man for a neighbour, Sir Noel Caron, who was resident ambassador here from the States of Holland for twenty-eight years. His estate contained 122 acres; he was a benefactor to the poor of his vicinity by charitable actions, some of which remain as permanent monuments of his benevolence, in the shape of almshouses, situate in the Wandsworth Road. The site of Caron House is now possessed by Henry Beaufoy, Esq., who has worthily emulated the deeds of his predecessor by acts of munificent benevolence, which must be fraught with incalculable good for ages yet to come. Mr. Beaufoy has, among his literary treasures, a very interesting collection of letters in MS., written in French, by Sir Noel Caron to Constantine Huyghens, I think, which contain many curious illustrations of the events of that period.

Let us hope that time may bring to light further and more complete materials for the biography of these Lambethan worthies, who have deserved to live in our memories as benefactors to mankind.

S. W. SINGER.

Manor Place, So. Lambeth, May 5. 1851.

* * * * *

THE FAMILY OF THE TRADESCANTS.