Part 5

No one, in my opinion, should endeavour to satisfy querists about a design more than the original proposer of such design, and I am the rather induced to make a few remarks, the subject having been passed over with a silence rendered remarkable by the importance of my proposal. Two correspondents, however, having come forward with additional suggestions and remarks, I feel myself possessed of a pretext to touch upon the subject once more. The following will show what common steadiness and attention have been able to bring about.

I have so far accomplished my purpose, as lately, while residing on the continent, and also since my return, to establish in Russia, Siberia and Tartary, Persia, and Eastern Europe, stations for the search after all MSS. worth attention. I hope, therefore, to be enabled ere long, through the co-operation of my friends abroad, to present the world with something more solid than mere promises, and more satisfactory to classical critics and lovers of antiquity like myself. Especially I expect from my Tartary correspondent some interesting and valuable Hebrew MSS., of which there are many to be obtained toward the frontier of China and in that country. I unfortunately missed such a MS. some years ago, which a sailor had offered to me, whom I am now unable to find. I earnestly solicit every Oriental traveller to co-operate with me.

The proposal of Dr. Arnold, quoted by M. N. (Vol. iii., p. 261.), I did not mention, although I was aware of it, as it is at present next to an impossibility to carry it out in the disturbed state of Continental Europe, useful as I allow it to be.

Your correspondent J. M. (Vol. iii., p. 340.) asks what has been accomplished at Herculaneum in the late investigations. Alas! a few thin folios at my side contain all that the most unwearied exertion, and ever-renewed patience, have been able to bring to light. A few tracts of Epicuros, Philodemos, Colotos, Polystratos, Demetrios, and Carneiscos, are the results of the labours at the "City of the Dead." It is much to be desired that the investigations should be recommenced when the troubled condition of the kingdom of Naples will admit of it. I refer J. M. to M. Morgenstern's excellent article on the subject in the _Classical Journal_, vol. vii. p. 272. _sqq._, and the _Herculanensium Voluminum_, Oxonii, 1824-1825 (Press-mark, 604 f 15, British Museum), and the splendid folios of Naples, 1793-1844 (Press-mark, 813 i 2.).

KENNETH R. H. MACKENZIE.

MS. NOTE IN A COPY OF LIBER SENTENTIARUM.

(Vol. iv., p. 188.)

_Peter Lombard, Gratian, and Comestor_ (Vol. iv., p. 188.).--Your correspondent W. S. W. alludes to the above-mentioned worthies. I extract from Bishop Jeremy Taylor a passage or two in support of the story of their brotherhood:

"It is reported of the mother of Peter Lombard, Gratian, and Comestor, that she having had three sons begotten in unhallowed embraces, upon her death-bed did omit the recitation of those crimes to her confessor; adding this for apology, that her three sons proved persons so eminent in the church, that their excellency was abundant recompense for her demerit; and therefore she could not grieve, because God had glorified Himself so much by three instruments so excellent: and that although her _sin_ had _abounded_, yet God's grace did super_abound_. Her confessor replied, '_At dole saltem, quod dolere non possis_ (Grieve that thou canst not grieve).'"--Sermon "On the Invalidity of a late or death-bed Repentance." _Sermons_, p. 234. Lond. 1678.

And again:

"To repent because we cannot repent, and to grieve because we cannot grieve, was a device invented to serve the turn of the mother of Peter Gratian."--_Holy Dying_, "Practice of Repentance in Sickness," Sect. vi. Rule 5. Lond. 1808.

RT.

Warmington.

W. S. W. (Vol. iv., p. 188.) invites attention to a manuscript note in his valuable copy of Peter Lombard's _Sentences_ (ed. Vien. 1477), by which Lombard, Gratian, and Comestor are described as "_fratres uterini_."

Antoninus, Archbishop of Florence, wrote about A.D. 1445. His account, therefore, of this clearly fabulous story must be somewhat earlier, as it is (at least in one particular) more curiously circumstantial. His words are (_Chronic. Op._, cap. vi. p. 65., ed. Lugd. 1586):

"A quibusdam prædicatur in populis, quod fuerunt germani ex adulterio nati. Quorum mater cum in extremis peccatum suum confiteretur, et Confessor redargueret crimen perpetratum adulterii, quia valde grave esset, et ideo multum deberet dolere, et poenitentiam agere, respondit illa: '_Pater, scio quod adulterium peccatum magnum est; sed, considerans quantum bonum secutum est, cum isti filii sint lumina magna in Ecclesiâ, ego non valeo poenitere._'"

However, whilst he records this singular story, Antoninus confesses that he gives little credit to it; for he presently adds:

"Non enim reperitur authenticum; imo, nec fuerunt contemporanei, etsi vicini tempore. Gratianus enim fuit ante alios duos."

And not only were they not cotemporaries, but also it may be worth observing, that they were not even fellow-countrymen.

J. SANSOM.

Replies to Minor Queries.

_Warnings to Scotland_ (Vol. iv., p. 233.).--Thomas Dutton, Guy Nutt, and John Glover, who published the _Warnings to Scotland_, were three of the French prophets who went as missionaries, first to Edinburgh and afterwards to Dublin. I have a continuation in manuscript, in a very thick 4to., of the printed book. They appear to have been succeeded at Edinburgh by James Cunningham and Margaret Mackenzie. Cunningham was the grandson of the murdered Archbishop of St. Andrews, and prophecied himself into the Tolbooth, his warnings from which place, with the autograph of the prophet, are contained in a volume entitled, _Warnings of the Eternal Spirit pronounced by the Mouth of James Cunningham during his Imprisonment in the Tolbooth of Edinburgh_, Lond. 1712, 12mo. pp. 547. 131. In the very curious and amusing account of the French prophets given in Keimer's _Brand pluck'd from the burning, exemplify'd in the unparall'd Case of Samuel Keimer_, Lond. printed by W. Boreman, 1718, Dutton, Nutt, Glover, and Cunningham, are frequently mentioned. "Thomas Dutton," he says, "was an eminent prophet, a sober ingenious man, by profession a lawyer, who wrote a letter against John Lacy's taking E. Gray." "Guy Nutt, a prophet, a formal whimsical man, who goes in plain habit, but not owned by the people called Quakers." Of Glover he gives an extraordinary account, p. 54., but which will scarcely admit of quotation. He observes, p. 115., that Glover acted the Devil "under agitations, five people standing upon him, as commanded by the spirit, he all the while making grimaces mixt with a strange mocking, yanging noise to the affrightment of the believers." Whether the prophet produced an abiding impression at Edinburgh by these _yanging noises_ I know not, but in England the sect continued for many years. I have a collection of the manifestations of one of them, Hannah Wharton, published in 1732, 12mo. She appears to have preached and prophecied at Birmingham. I may here observe, that Keimer's tract above mentioned contains a very interesting letter from Daniel Defoe, which has not been noticed by his biographers. Keimer was one of the numerous publishers for Defoe. He afterwards went to America, and we find him frequently noticed in the autobiography of Dr. Franklin.

JAS. CROSSLEY.

_Fides Carbonaria_ (Vol. iv., p. 233.).--_Fides carbonarii_, as it ought to be written, originated in an anecdote told with approbation by Dr. Milner, or some controversial writer on the same side, and ridiculed by Protestants. A coal porter being asked what he believed, replied "What the church believes;" and being asked what the church believed, replied "What I believe." He could give no further information.

E. H. D. D.

_Fire Unknown._ (Vol. iv., p. 209.).--In answer to C. W. G., I find that Pickering, in his _Races of Man_, p 32., states that in Interior Oregon his friends Messrs. Agate and Brackenridge observed "no marks of fire;" and, p. 61., that in the Otafuan group the use of fire was apparently absent; and that he does not remember to have seen any signs of fire at the Disappointment Islands. Perhaps further inquiry, which he suggests, might prove that fire is not really wanting among the inhabitants of these islands.

THEOPHYLACT.

_Pope and Flatman_ (Vol. iv., p. 210.).--Flatman's _Poems_ were first published in the year 1682--his death took place in 1688: these dates, therefore, supply an answer to E. V., as far as regards the question of borrowing. The edition now before me is that of 1686, being the _fourth_, "with many additions and amendments." It is dedicated to "His Grace the Duke of Ormond, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland," &c., and has twenty-eight pages of recommendatory poems prefixed to it; one of which bears the name of _Charles Cotton_, the adopted son of honest Izaak Walton.

Although Campbell speaks with great contempt of Flatman, and quotes Granger, who says that "one of his heads (he painted portraits in miniature) is worth a ream of his pindarics," I cannot but think he has been unduly depreciated; there being many passages in his poems (brief ones it is true) possessed of considerable beauty, and which I would gladly extract in proof of my assertion, were your pages available for such a purpose.

T. C. S.

_Pope's Translations or Imitations of Horace_ (Vol. i., p. 230.; Vol. iv., pp. 58. 122. 139. 239.).--I am very much obliged to MR. CROSSLEY for his information and obliging offer; but until he is able to find the publication of the piece in question by Curll, and with the date of 1716, he will forgive my doubting whether his memory has not failed him as to the date, as the fact is directly at variance with Pope's own statement to Spence. MR. CROSSLEY is certainly mistaken in thinking that "The two quarto volumes are the only collection of Pope's works that can be called his own, and that Dodsley's edition of 1738 was a mere bookseller's collection." There is abundant evidence that this edition was Pope's own just as much as the quartos, as was also a prior edition of the same small shape of 1736.

C.

_Lord Mayor not a Privy Councillor_ (Vol. iv., pp. 9. 137. 180. 236.).--The main question is, I think, settled; that there is no pretence whatsoever for the supposition that the _Lord Mayor is a Privy Councillor_; but your last correspondent DN. has fallen into a slight error, which it may be as well to correct. He confounds a _summons to the Privy Council_ with an invitation or notice which is sent (as he truly states) from the Home Office to such noblemen and gentlemen as are known to be at hand to attend at the _meeting_ for proclaiming the sovereign; but which meeting any one may, and the majority do, attend without any such notice. This is the notice that DN. received, and that I myself have received at two accessions; and which no doubt the Lord Mayor and Alderman, and city officers, also receive; but this has nothing whatsoever to do with the _Privy Council_.

C.

_Herschel anticipated_ (Vol. iv., p. 233.).--Thomas Wright suspected the motion of the sun in 1750; but I never heard that he was thought mad. See _Phil. Mag._, April, 1848, where an account of Wright is given.

M.

_Sanford's Descensus_ (Vol. iv., p. 232.).--ÆGROTUS will find the following in the Bodleian: _De descensu Domini nostri Jesu Christi ad Inferos, libri quatuor, ab Hugone Sanfordo inchoati, opera Rob. Parkeri ad umbilicum perducti_, 4to. Amst. 1611.

SAXONICUS.

_Pope's "honest Factor"_ (Vol. iv., pp. 6. 244.).--In the _European Magazine_ for September, 1791, under the head of "Anecdotes of the Pitt Family," there is a memoir given of Governor Pitt, from which I extract the following passages as illustrative of the Queries of your correspondents J. SWAN and C.:--

"The most extraordinary incident in this gentleman's life was, his obtaining and disposing of the celebrated diamond which is still called by his name. It was purchased by him during the time he was Governor of Fort St. George, for 48,000 pagodas, _i.e._ 20,400_l._ sterling, instead of 200,000, which the seller first asked for it. It was consigned to Sir Stephen Evance, Knt., in London, in the ship Bedford, Captain John Hudson, Commander, by a bill of lading dated March 8, 1701-2, and charged to the Captain at 6,500 pagodas only. It was reckoned the largest jewel in Europe, and weighed one hundred and twenty-seven carats. When polished it was as big as a pullet's egg. The cuttings amounted to eight or ten thousand pounds."

"It appears, that the acquisition of this diamond occasioned many reflections injurious to the honour of Governor Pitt; and Mr. Pope has been thought to have had the insinuations, then floating in the world, in his mind when he wrote the following lines:

"'Asleep and naked as an Indian lay, An honest factor stole a gem away: He pledg'd it to the Knight; the Knight had wit; So kept the di'mond, and the rogue was bit.'

"These reports, however, never obtained much credit; though they were loud enough to reach the ears of the person against whom they were directed, who condescended to vindicate himself against the aspersions thrown out upon him."

T. C. S.

"_A little Bird told me_" (Vol. iv., p. 232.).--C. W. might have discovered the origin of this saying in an authority much older and much more familiar to English readers than the Koran. Instead of going to Mahomet in search for legends of King Solomon, if he had opened his Bible, and turned to the Book of _Ecclesiastes_ x. 20., he would there have found the wise monarch of Israel himself saying,

"Curse not the king, no, not in thy thought; and curse not the rich in thy bed-chamber: for a bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter."

TYRO.

Dublin.

[R. G., MACKENZIE WALCOTT, P. S. Q., ROVERT, H. T. E., A. H. B., J. A. PICTON, and other friends, have kindly forwarded similar replies.]

_The Winchester Execution_ (Vol. iv., pp. 191. 243.).--The story, of which a summary appears under this title in a recent Number, resembles one I have repeatedly heard told in the city of Durham by those who had personal recollection of the facts and persons; it occurred about thirty years ago. A servant girl was capitally convicted of administering poison to the household of a farmer, in a fit of passion at some petty injury: a legal doubt raised in her behalf was submitted for consideration in London, and some months elapsed in determining it. During the interval, her character and conduct being good, she came to be employed as a servant in the household of the governor of the gaol, then situated in an old gatehouse at the entrance of the Bailey; and one of my informants has seen her drawing water at the _pant_ in the market place, two or three hundred yards from the gaol, in the heart of the town. One morning the governor and all Durham were struck with horror at the receipt of an order for her execution, within three days; the city being then two days by coach from London, and an appeal for compassion impossible. The execution, singularly, was attended with distressing circumstances. The rope employed broke, another was not at hand: and the wretched girl sat crying under the beam, until a man sent into the town (in a field outside of which, on the Newcastle road, this scene occurred) could return with another cord, with which he was seen flogging his horse up to the gallows. So I have been told by grave and trustworthy witnesses.

F.

_Stanzas in "Childe Harold"_ (Vol. iv., p. 223.).--Surely nothing can be clearer than the construction in the lines quoted by our correspondent T. W.:

"Thy shores are empires, changed in all save thee-- Assyria, Greece, Rome, Carthage, what are they? Thy waters wasted them while they were free, And many a tyrant since (has wasted them)."

To add one word to confirm what is so transparent, would be merely occupying your space without the slightest necessity.

JAS. CROSSLEY.

[J. G. R., H. C. K., J. MN., H. L., CHAS. PASLAM, J. A. PICTON, A. E. B., G. S., C. B., SELEUCUS, EDW. S. JACKSON, H. M. A., and many other friends, have kindly furnished similar replies to T. W.'s Query, some at considerable length. We have therefore selected the above, as one of the shortest and first that reached us.]

_Gray and Virgil._--Your correspondent on Gray's plagiarisms (Vol. iii., p. 445.) quotes Davenant and Prior as having both forestalled his idea with regard to _sorrow_, that--

"Where ignorance is bliss, 'Tis folly to be wise."

I long since noted these lines as parallel to--

[Greek: Phronô d', ha paschô; kai tod' ou smikron kakon; to mê eidenai gar hêdonên echei tina nosounta; _kerdos d' en kakois agnôsia_.]

Euripid. _Frag. Antiop._ xiii.

In the next page of "NOTES AND QUERIES," Q. E. D. reasonably defends the expression "Thamesini _littoris_ hospes." The exact distinction between _littus_ and _ripa_ is marked indeed by Ovid, where he says of the rivers:

"In mare perveniunt partim, campoque recepta Liberioris aquæ, _pro ripis littora pulsant_."--_Met._ i. 41.

But this did not prevent his applying _littora_ to a lake:

"Sint tibi Flaminius _Thrasymenaque littora_ testes."

_Fast._ vi. 765.

Both he and Virgil use _littus_, speaking of the same river:

"_Littus adit Laurens_; ubi tectus arundine serpit In freta flumineis vicina Numicius undis."

_Met._ xiv. 598.

Here, however, there might be a question from the context: not so, however, in _Æn._ vii. 797.:

"Qui saltus, Tiberiae, tuos, sacrumque Numici _Littus_ arant."

On the other hand we have _ripa_ for _littus_:

"Æquoris nigri fremitum, et trementes Verbere ripas."

Hor. _Od._ III. xxvii. 23.

EFFIGIES.

Stamford.

_Aulus Gellius' Description of a Dimple_ (Vol. iv., p. 134.).--The couplet quoted by your correspondent RT. is from Varro, and I think he will find it given by Mad. Dacier in her edition of Anacreon, under Ode xxviii., line 26.:

"[Greek: trypherou d' esô geneiou]," &c.

[Hebrew: A. T.]

If your correspondent RT. will refer to Gray's _Works_, vol. ii. p. 164., edited by Mitford, and published by Pickering, 1836, he will find the following note:--

"The fragment is not to be found in Aulus Gellius, but in Mori Marcellus, under the word 'Mollitudo.'"

Now what _Mori Marcellus_ means, I know not: perhaps some of your correspondents may enlighten me on that point.

HENRY DYKE.

Gretworth, near Brackley, Aug. 25. 1851.

This Mori Marcellus I take to be the same person as Marcellus Nonius, of whom an account is to be found in Smith's _Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography, &c._, vol. ii. p. 937.

F. BW.

Miscellaneous.

NOTES ON BOOKS, SALES, CATALOGUES, ETC.

There is one feature in Murray's _Reading for the Rail_, namely, that of making the volumes not of one uniform price, but varying from One Shilling and upwards, the advantages of which are shown very clearly by the first two of the series which have appeared. For it would have been a difficulty for the most Procrustean of editors to have compressed _The Essays from The Times_ within the limits of that capital shilling's worth, _The Chase_, by Nimrod. Well do we remember, that on the appearance of that sparkling sketch in the _Quarterly_, in the same way that many--who like Michael Cassio,

"never set a squadron in the field, Nor the division of a battle knew, More than a spinster,"

have watched with the deepest interest the masterly strategy of Marlborough, Napoleon, or that greater still, The Duke--hundreds who never set foot in stirrup--who certainly never joined in a view hallo! followed with the greatest interest and anxiety the adventures of Snob and his little bay mare in the Quorn Country. If Mr. Murray does not sell ten or twenty thousand copies of this amusing tractate, we shall be greatly deceived. May he sell as many of its more important companion, _The Essays from the Times_: for, as he well observes in his prefatory notice to the volume in question, these brilliant Papers on Lord Nelson and Lady Hamilton, Railway Novels, Louis Philippe, Southey, &c. exhibit "literary merits and a moral tone well calculated to promote the important national object" advocated by that powerful journal in the article on the Literature of the Rail to which the present series owes its origin. How many hundreds, nay thousands, must there be who, having read these Essays and Reviews in _The Times_, where they were made to point a moral most effectually, have especially desired to possess them in a more permanent form; and who, having secured the present admirable selection, will look anxiously for the period when Mr. Murray will be enabled to give a second volume of them.

Among the many works illustrative of the history of France--literary, social, and monumental--for which the French are mainly indebted to the enlightened administration of M. Guizot, when Minister of Public Instruction, there is not one of greater value than the handsome quarto published by M. Didron, the learned Secretary of the Comité des Arts et Monuments, entitled _Iconographie Chrétienne_. Of the importance and utility of this volume, with its admirable illustrations, every journal in this country devoted to art or archæology has exhibited repeated proofs: and of the many wonderfully cheap books which Mr. Bohn has from time to time produced, there is not one to compare with the Translation of this interesting volume, which he has just put forth under the title of _Christian Iconography; or the History of Christian Art in the Middle Ages. In Two Volumes. Vol. I comprising the History of the Nimbus, the Aureole, and the Glory, the History of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost_. This first volume contains not only nearly the whole of M. Didron's quarto; but also between 100 and 150 wood-cuts from the original blocks. The subject is one almost new to the English public; and the book therefore will be found of great interest to the general reader, and of especial interest to the artist, the ecclesiologist, the Antiquary, and the student of Church History.

CATALOGUE RECEIVED.--Cole's (15. Great Turnstile) List No. 57 of Very Cheap Books.

BOOKS AND ODD VOLUMES

WANTED TO PURCHASE.

THE ANTIQUARY. 8vo. Edinburgh, 1816. Vols. I. and II.

HISTORY AND ANTIQUITIES OF TWICKENHAM, being the First Part of Parochial Collections for the County of Middlesex, begun in 1780 by E. Ironside, Esq., London, 1797. (This work forms 1 vol. of Miscell. Antiquities in continuation of the Bib. Topographica, and is usually bound in the 10th Volume.)

RITSON'S ROBIN HOOD. 12mo. London, 1795. Vol. II. (10_s._ will be given for a clean copy in _boards_, or 7_s._ 6_d._ for a clean copy _bound_.)

DR. JOHNSON'S PRAYERS AND MEDITATIONS.

ANNUAL OBITUARY AND BIOGRAPHY. Vol. XXXI.

THEOPHILUS AND PHILODOXUS, or Several Conferences, &c., by Gilbert Giles, D.D., Oxon, 1674; or the same work republished 1679, under the title of a "Dialogue between a Protestant and a Papist."

PECK'S COMPLETE CATALOGUE OF ALL THE DISCOURSES WRITTEN BOTH FOR AND AGAINST PAPACY IN THE TIME OF KING JAMES II. 1735. 4to.

NICHOLS' LEICESTERSHIRE. Wanted the Vol. containing the Guthlaxton Hundred.

HARLEIAN MANUSCRIPTS. Index to Vol. IV.

REPORTS OF CHARITY COMMISSION. Vols. VI. VIII. IX.

INDEX TO ADDITIONAL MSS. in the Museum.

FEARNE'S ESSAY ON HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS, 4to.

BISHOP KIDDER'S LIFE OF ANTHONY HORNECK.

TIGHE'S LIFE OF LAW.

MACROPEDII, HECASTUS FABULA. 8vo. Antwerp, 1539.

OMNES GEORGII MACROPEDII FABULÆ COMICÆ. Utrecht, 1552. 2 Vols. 8vo.

OTHONIS LEXICON RABBINICUM.