letter 107., Cosin, in describing to Sancroft some of the ceremonies of
his reception at Durham, mentions "_the sword that killed the dragon_," as a relic of antiquity introduced on the occasion. I should feel obliged, if you, or any of your antiquarian readers, could kindly refer me to some tolerably full account of the ceremony alluded to, or throw any light upon the meaning of the custom in question, the origin and history of the sword, and the tradition connected with it.
J. SANSOM.
Minor Queries Answered.
"_At Sixes and Sevens_" (Vol. iii., p. 118.).--May not this expression bear reference to the _points_ in the card-game of piquet?
G. F. G.
May not this expression have arisen from the passage in Eliphaz's discourse to Job?
"He shall deliver thee is _six_ troubles; yea, in _seven_ there shall no evil touch thee."--Job. v. 19.
A. M.
Mr. Halliwell, in his _Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words_, vol. ii. p. 724., thus explains this phrase:
"The Deity is mentioned in the _Towneley Mysteries_, pp. 97. 118., as He that 'sett alle on seven,' _i. e._, set or appointed everything in seven days. A similar phrase at p. 85. is not so evident. It is explained in the Glossary, 'to set things in, to put them in order;' but it evidently implies, in some cases, an exactly opposite meaning, to set in confusion, to rush to battle, as in the following examples. '_To set the steven_, to agree upon the time and place of meeting previous to some expedition,'--_West and Cumb. Dial._ p. 390. These phrases may be connected with each other. Be this as it may, hence is certainly derived the phrase _to be at sixes and sevens_, to be in great confusion. Herod, in his anger at the wise men, says:
"'Bot be they past me by, by Mahowne in heven, I shalle, and that in hy, _set alle on sex and seven_; Trow ye a kyng as I wyll suffre thaym to neven Any to have mastry bot myself fulle even.'
_Towneley Mysteries_, p. 143.
"'Thus he _settez on sevene_ with his sekyre knyghttez.'
_Morte Arthure_, MS. Lincoln, f. 76.
"'The duk swore by gret God of hevene, Wold my hors so evene, Zet wold I _set all one seven_ Ffor Myldor the swet!'
_Degrevant_, 1279.
"'Old Odcombs odnesse makes not thee uneven, Nor carelesly set all _at six and seven_.'
Taylor's _Workes_, 1630, ii. 71."
J. K. R. W.
[Six and seven make the proverbially unlucky number _thirteen_, and we are inclined to believe that the allusion in this popular phrase is to this combination.]
* * * * *
_Swobbers._--There is a known story of a clergyman who was recommended for a preferment by some great men at court to an archbishop. His Grace said, "He had heard that the clergyman used to play at whist and _swobbers_; that as to playing now and then a sober game at whist for pastime, it might be pardoned; but he could not digest those wicked swobbers;" and it was with some pains that my Lord Somers could undeceive him. So says Swift, in his _Essay on the Fates of Clergymen_; and a note in Sir W. Scott's edition (1824, vol. viii. p 231.) informs us that the primate was "Tenison, who, by all contemporary accounts, was a very dull man." At the risk of being thought as dull as the archbishop, I venture to ask for an explanation of the joke.
J. C. R.
[Johnson, under "Swobber" or "Swabber," gives, "1. A sweeper of the deck;" and "2. Four privileged cards that are only incidentally used in betting at the game of whist." He then quotes this passage from Swift, with the difference that he says "clergymen." Were not the cards so called because they "swept the deck" by a sort of "sweep-stakes?"]
* * * * *
_Handel's Occasional Oratorio._--Will DR. RIMBAULT, or some other musical correspondent of your journal, enlighten us as to the true meaning of the name _Occasional Oratorio_, prefixed to one of Handel's compositions, of which no one that I have ever met with has heard more than the overture? This composition has become almost universally known from the foolish practice which used to prevail of performing it as an introduction to _Israel in Egypt_, or any other work to which its composer had purposely denied the preliminary of an overture; a practice now happily exploded, which seems to have had its origin in a misinterpretation of the name; as though Handel had written the overture to suit any _occasion_ when one might be needed, instead of, as I am rather disposed to believe, having some particular occasion in view for which the oratorio was composed.
E. V.
[Surely, if there is no _Occasional_ Oratorio to be found, the _Overture_ must mean that it was to be used on _occasion_. Our correspondent does not seem to know the word as it is used by writers of a century ago, for "Occasional Sermons" or services, &c. The question is simply one of fact. _Is_ there an Oratorio? Everybody knows the overture. The writer of this note remembers being horrified, when a freshman, at hearing the fugue break forth in the College Chapel, was pondering in his mind whether it was Drops of Brandy, or the Rondo in the Turnpike-Gate, both then popular tunes.]
* * * * *
_Archbishop Waldeby's Epitaph._--W. W. KING would be obliged by a perfect copy of the inscription on the monumental brass of Archbishop Waldeby in Westminster Abbey.
[The brass is engraved in Harding's _Antiquities of Westminster Abbey_; but it appears that one half of the following inscription, which was formerly round the verge of the brass, has now been torn away:--
"Hic fuit expertus in quovis jure Robertus, De Waldeby dictus nunc est sub marmore strictus; Sacre Scripture Doctor fuit, et geniture Ingenuus Medicus et plebis semper amicus Presul Adurensis posthoc Archas Dublinensis Hinc Cicestrensis, tandem Primas Eborensis Quarto kalend. Junii migravit cursibus anni Sepultus milleni ter C. septem Nonies quoque deni. Vos precor, Orate quod sint sibi dona beate Cum sanctis vite requiescat et hic sine lite."
Weever, in his _Funeral Monuments_, quotes the following description of him from a MS. account of the Archbishops of York, in the Cottonian Collection:--
"Tunc Robertus ordinis fratris Augustini Ascendit in cathedram primatis Paulini, Lingua scientificus sermonis latini Anno primo proximat vite sue fini, De carnis ergastulo presul evocatur Gleba sui corporis Westminstre humatur."]
* * * * *
_Verstegan._--Will any of the contributors to your valuable miscellany be kind enough to inform me if there are any engraved portraits of the quaint old antiquary Richard Verstegan, the author of a curious work, entitled _A Restitution of Decayed Intelligence_? The portraits may be common, but living in the country, and at distance from town, I have no friend from whom I can glean the required information. Can my informant at the same time acquaint me with the best edition of his work? There was one printed at Antwerp in 1605.
J. S. P. (a Subscriber.)
[Our correspondent will find a notice of Verstegan's work in page 85. of this volume. The first edition was printed at Antwerp in 1605, and was reprinted at London in 4to. in 1634, and in 8vo. in 1655 and 1673. The first edition is deservedly reckoned the best, as well on account of containing one or more engravings, afterwards omitted, as also for the superiority of the plates, those in the subsequent editions being very indifferent copies. No portrait of the author is noticed either by Granger or Bromley.]
* * * * *
_Royal Library._--In the new edition of Boswell's _Life of Johnson_ (published by the proprietors of the _Illustrated London News_), in the _National Illustrated Library_, the editor, in reference to the library of King George III. (which is generally understood to have been presented to the nation by George IV., and which is recorded to have been given, in an inscription placed in that magnificent hall), has appended the following note:--
"It has recently transpired that the government of the day bought the library of George IV., just as he was on the eve of concluding a sale of it to the Emperor of Russia."
Can any of your readers inform me if this is correct, and whether the nation have really paid for what has always been considered a most worthy and munificent present from a monarch to his subjects? I trust to hear that the editor has been misinformed.
J. S. L.
[The nation certainly never paid one farthing for this munificent present. The Russian Government offered, we believe, to purchase the library; and this is probably the origin of the statement in the note quoted by our correspondent.]
Replies.
HUGH HOLLAND AND HIS WORKS.
An accidental circumstance having led me to re-peruse the article entitled _Hugh Holland and his works_ (Vol. ii., p. 265.), I feel myself called on, as a lover of facts, to notice some of the statements which it contains.
1. "He was born at Denbigh in 1558." He was born at Denbigh, but not in 1558. In 1625 he thus expressed himself:
"Why was the fatall spinster so vnthrifty? To draw my third four yeares to tell and fifty!"
2. "In 1582 he matriculated at Baliol College, Oxford." He did not quit Westminster School till 1589. If he ever pursued his studies at Baliol College, it was some ten years afterwards.
3. "About 1590 he succeeded to a fellowship at Trinity College, Cambridge." In 1589 he was elected from Westminster to a _scholarship_ in Trinity College, Cambridge--not to a _fellowship_. At a later period of life, he may have succeeded to a fellowship.
4. "Holland published two works: 1. _Monumenta sepulchralia Sancti Pauli_, London, 1613, 4to. 2. _A cypress garland_ etc., London, 1625, 4to." Hugh Holland was not the compiler of the first-named work: the initials H. H admit of another interpretation. This, however, is a very pardonable oversight. I could give about twenty authorities for ascribing the work to Hugh Holland.
5. The dates assigned to the _Monumenta Sancti Pauli_ are "1613, 1616, 1618, and 1633." Here are three errors in as many lines. The _first_ edition is dated in 1614. The edition of 1633, which is entitled _Ecclesia Sancti Pavli illvstrata_, is the _second_. No other editions exist.
6. "Holland also printed a copy of Latin verses before Alexander's _Roxana_, 1632." No such work exists. He may have printed verses before the _Roxana_ of W. Alabaster, who was his brother-collegian.
The authorities which I have consulted are Fuller, Anthony à Wood, Henry Holland, son of the celebrated Philemon Holland, Hugh Holland, and Joseph Welch; and in submitting the result of my researches to critical examination, I must commend the writer of the article in question for his continued efforts to produce new facts, and to explode current errors.
Insensible as modern critics may be to the poetical merits of Hugh Holland, we find him described by Camden as one of the _most pregnant wits_ of those times; and he certainly gave a notable proof of his wit--for fame is that which _all hunt after_--in contributing some lines to _Mr. William Shakespeares comedies, histories, and tragedies_.
On that account, if on no other, the particulars of his life should be inquired into and recorded. His _Cypress garland_, a copy of which I possess, is rich in autobiographical anecdote; and I have collected some of his fugitive verses, a specimen of which may amuse. As one of the shortest, I transcribe the lines which he addressed to Giles Farnaby, a musical composer of some eminence, on the publication of his _Canzonets to fowre voyces_, A. D. 1598.
"_M. Hu. Holland to the author._
I would both sing thy praise, and praise thy singing, That in the winter nowe are both a-springing; But my muse must be stronger, And the daies must be longer. When the sunne's in his hight with ye bright Barnaby, Then should we sing thy praises, gentle Farnaby."
BOLTON CORNEY.
THE MILESIANS.
(Vol. iii., p. 353.)
In reply to W. R. M., who asks for information respecting the round towers of Ireland, I beg to refer him to Dr. Petrie's essay on the _Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland_, in which he will find a full discussion of the origin, uses, and history of the round towers.
In reference to the Milesians and other early colonists of Ireland, he will find the most authentic ancient traditions in the Irish version of the _Historia Britonum of Nennius_, lately published by the Irish Archæological Society of Dublin, with a translation and notes, by the Rev. J. H. Todd, D.D. The same volume contains also some very curious and valuable notes by the Hon. A. Herbert.
What W. R. M. says about the pronunciation of certain names of towns in Ireland, as confirming the tradition of a Milesian colony from Spain, is a complete mistake. The pronunciation of _gh_ to which he alludes, exists only amongst the English (or Anglicised natives) who are unable to pronounce the guttural _ch_ or _gh_ of the Celtic Irish, and have substituted for it the sound of _h_, or the sound of the Spanish _j_, to which W. R. M. refers. Besides this, every philologist knows that the present language of Spain had no existence at the period to which the Milesian invasion of Ireland must be referred. It is true that on the west coast of Ireland some families among the peasantry retain many of the characteristic features of modern Spaniards; but this circumstance is due to an intercourse with Spain of a much more recent date than the Milesian invasion, and is therefore no evidence of that event. It is well known that considerable trade with Spain was carried on at Galway and other ports of western Connaught, two centuries ago, and that many Spanish families settled in Ireland, or intermarried with the natives during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
To remove W. R. M.'s mistaken impression that Drogheda, Aghada, &c., are names of Spanish origin, it may be well to inform him, first, that the _gh_ in such names is not sounded like the Spanish _j_, except, as I have said, by--(I was on the point of writing _foreigners_), but I mean by those who are unable to pronounce our Celtic guttural aspirates. Secondly, that Drogheda, Aghada, &c., are names significant in the Irish language and perfectly well understood, and that as now written they are not seen in their correct orthography, but in an Anglicised spelling intended to represent to English ears the native pronunciation. In the last century Drogheda was usually written _Tredagh_ in English; but the word in its proper spelling is _Droichet-atha_, the bridge of the ford, _trajectum vadi_. There are many places in Ireland named from this word _Droichet_, which is no doubt the Latin _trajectum_, the same which forms a part of the name of _Utrecht_ (Ultrajectum), and other towns on the continent.
The word _Agha_, properly _Achadh_, signifies a _field_, and enters into the composition of hundreds of topographical names in Ireland. But in every case the _gh_ (or _ch_, as it properly is) is pronounced gutturally by the peasantry; the _h_ or Spanish _j_ sound is a modern Anglicised corruption.
On the subject of Irish proper names of places and persons a vast body of curious and valuable information will be found in the publications of the Irish Archæological Society, and also in O'Donovan's splendid edition of the _Annals of the Four Masters_.
HIBERNICUS.
We _mere Irish_ assume to be descended from a Phoenician colony; the word _Milesian_ is not Irish, the families so designated being known in the Irish language only as "Clonna Gäel" (I spare the English reader the _mute_ consonants, which _would rather bother him_ to get his tongue round).
Our tradition is, that the leader of the said colony saw Ireland from a tower, still said to exist near Corunna; he bore the style of _Mileadle Spaniogle_, for which no better translation is offered than "the soldier of Spain." His brothers and sons, the chief himself having deceased, are said to have conducted the expedition to Ireland; and if your correspondent wishes for a full account of their adventures, he should consult Keating's _History of Ireland_, which will, at all events, afford him some amusement.
As to the round towers, Mr. Petrie's book on _The Ecclesiastical Antiquities or Architecture of Ireland_ has set that question at rest. He has shown that they are undoubtedly Christian buildings intended as _Bell-houses_, which their name in Irish signifies; and further, probably, for the safe keeping of the sacred vessels, &c., in time of war or tumult. It is unfortunately too certain that agitation was always rife in Ireland. On all points connected with Irish antiquities, the safest and best reference is to the Secretary of the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin. If this answer attract any of your correspondents to visit the museum of that establishment, I venture to prophecy that they will account themselves well repaid for their trouble, even though they should miss visiting the Great Exhibition thereby.
KERRIENSIS.
THE TANTHONY.
(Vol. iii., pp. 105. 229. 308.)
I remember hearing a worthy citizen of Norwich remark, that it was very odd there should be three churches in the city called after saints whose names began with the letter T. Having been myself resident in that city many years, without being aware of this fact, I took the liberty of inquiring to which three he alluded; when I was unhesitatingly told, "Why, Sain Tandrew's, Sain Taustin's, and Sain Tedmund's, to be sure!" Let me then be allowed to repeat ARUN'S question, and to ask, "Why not Tanthony for Saint Anthony?"
The same worthy citizen was once sheriff of Norwich, and, as is, or haply was, the custom,--for I know not how these matters are managed now-a-days,--went forth in civic state to meet the judges of assize. When their lordships were seated in the sheriff's carriage, one of them charitably observed, "Yours, I believe, is a very ancient city, Mr. Sheriff!" to which the latter, a little flurried, no doubt, at being thus so pointedly addressed, but in decided accents, replied, "It _was_ ONCE, my Lord!" And without stopping to consider what was passing in his mind when he gave utterance to these somewhat ambiguous words, may we not take them up, and ask whether it be not even so, not only as regards Norwich, but most of her venerable sister towns as well? Where are their quondam glories--their arts and rare inventions--their "thoughts in antique words conveyed"--their "boast of heraldry"--their pageantries and shows? Where their high-peaked gables--their curiously wrought eaves and overhanging galleries--their quaint doorways, so elaborately carved, and all their other cunning devices?--"Modern Taste," with finger pointed to the newest creation of her plaster genius, triumphantly echoes the monosyllable, and answers, "Where?" Well, we are perforce content; only with this proviso:--if, fatigued with the tinselled superficialities and glossy refinements of the present, we are fain to "cast one longing lingering look behind," and chance to light upon some worthy illustrative memorial of the literature, the manners, or domestic life of the past,--that the spirit of Captain Cuttle's sage advice be made our own, and that we forthwith transfer our prize for the critical examination of "diving antiquaries" to the conservative pages of "NOTES AND QUERIES."
COWGILL.
_The Tanthony._--Will your correspondent ARUN permit one to refer him to an authority for the use of the word "Tanton" for St. Anthony? An hospital in York, dedicated to St. Anthony, after the dissolution came into the possession of a gild or fraternity of a master and eight keepers, who were commonly called "Tanton Pigs." Vide Drake's _Eboracum_, p. 315.
[Greek: D].
_Tanthony Bell at Kimbolton._--"Tanthony" is from St. Anthony. In Hampshire the small pig of the litter (in Essex called "the cad") is, or once was, called "the Tanthony pig." Pigs were especially under this saint's care. The ensign of the order of St. Anthony of Hainault was a collar of gold made like a hermit's girdle; at the centre thereof hung a crutch and a small bell of gold. St. Anthony is styled, among his numerous titles, "Membrorum restitutor," and "Dæmonis fugator:" hence the bell.
"The Egyptians have none but wooden bells, except one brought by the Franks into the monastery of St. Anthony."--Rees' _Cyclopædia_, art. Bell.
I hope ARUN will be satisfied with this connexion of St. Anthony with the pig, the crutch, and the bell.
"The staff" in the figure of the saint at Merthyr is, I should think, a crutch.
"The custom of making particular saints tutelars and protectors of one or another species of cattle is still kept up in Spain and other places. They pray to the tutelar when the beast is sick. Thus St. Anthony is for hogs, and we call a poor starved creature a _Tantony_ pig."--Salmon's _History of Hertfordshire_, 1728.
A. HOLT WHITE.
May I venture to observe, in confirmation of ARUN'S suggestion as to the origin of this term, that the bell appears to have been a constant attribute of St. Anthony, although I have tried in vain to discover any allusion to it in his legend?
Frederick von Schlegel, in describing a famous picture by Bramante d'Urbino (_Æsthetic and Miscellaneous Works_, p. 78.), mentions St. Anthony as "carrying the hermit's little bell;" and Lord Lindsay, in the Introduction to his _Letters on Christian Art_ (vol. i. p. 192.), says that St. Anthony is known by "the bell and staff, denoting mendicancy." If this be the case, the bell at Kimbolton was doubtless intended originally to announce the presence of some wayfarer or mendicant. Tanthony is a common contraction for St. Anthony, as in the term "a Tanthony pig;" and a similar system of contraction was in use amongst the troubadours, who put _Na_ for _Donna_; as _Nalombarda_ for _Donna Lombarda_.
The bell carried by St. Anthony is sometimes thought to have reference to his Temptations; bells being, in the words of Durandus, "the trumpets of the eternal king," on hearing which the devils "flee away, as through fear." I think, however, that these words apply rather to church bells.
E. J. M.
PILGRIMS' ROAD TO CANTERBURY.
(Vol. ii., pp. 199. 237. 269. 316.)
I think those of your readers who are interested in this Query will feel that the replies it has received are not quite satisfactory, and I therefore trust you will find some room for the following remarks.
I would beg to ask, can there be any doubt that from Southwark to Dartford, and from Rochester to their destination, Chaucer and his fellow pilgrims journeyed along the old Roman way, then for many centuries the great thoroughfare from London to the south-eastern coast, and which for these portions of the route is nearly identical with the present turnpike-road? The _Tales_ themselves make it certain that the pilgrims started on this ancient way; for when the Host interrupts the sermonising of the Reeve, he mentions Deptford and Greenwich as being in their route:
"Say forth thy tale, and tarry not the time, Lo Depeford, and it is half way prime; Lo Greenewich, there many a shrew is in, It were all time thy tale to begin."
Shortly after leaving Dartford the turnpike-road bends to the left, reaching Rochester by Gravesend and Gadshill; whilst the Roman way, parts of which are still used, was carried to that city by Southfleet, and through Cobham Park; and it seems to me that the only question we have to solve is, whether Chaucer followed the Roman way throughout, or whether between Dartford and Rochester he took the course of what is now the turnpike-road. For I cannot but think it very unlikely that, with a celebrated road leading almost straight as a line to Canterbury, the pilgrims should either go many miles out of their way to seek another, as they must have done, or run the risk of losing themselves in a "horse-track."
In attempting to determine this point, your readers will remember the injunction of Poins:
"But, my lads, my lads, to-morrow morning by four o'clock early at Gadshill; there are pilgrims going to Canterbury with rich offerings, and traders riding to London with fat purses."--_Henry IV._, Pt. I.