Notes and Queries, Vol. IV, Number 98, September 13, 1851 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.

Part 3

Chapter 33,931 wordsPublic domain

5. To A. B. C. (Vol. iv., p. 57.), your questionist about the marriage of bishops in the early ages of the Christian church, who has had a reply in p. 125., I would further say, that as we have no biographies describing the domestic life of any Christian bishop earlier than Cyprian, who belonged to the middle of the third century, it is only incidentally that anything appears of the kind which he inquires after. It would be enough for the primitive Christians to know that their scriptures said of _marriage_, that it was _honourable in all;_ though such as were especially exposed to persecution, from their prominence as officers of the church, would also remember the apostle's advice as good for the present distress, 1 Cor. vii. As, however, your correspondent asks what evidence there is that Gregory Nazienzen's father had children after he was raised to the episcopate, this fact is gathered from his own poem, in which he makes his father say to him, "Thy years are not so many as I have passed in sacred duties." For though these sacred duties began with his admission into the priesthood, he was made a bishop so soon afterwards, that his younger son, Cæsarius, must at any rate be held to have been born after the elder Gregory became a bishop.

Curiously enough, however, good evidence appears in the papal law itself, that the marriages of ecclesiastics were not anciently deemed unlawful. In the _Corpus Juris Canonici_, or _Decretum aureum_, D. Gratiani, Distinctio lvi. canon 2., which professes to be a rescript of Pope Damasus (A.D. 366-84), says:

"Theodorus papa filius [fuit] Theodori episcopi de civitate Hierosolyma, Silverius papa filius Silverii episcopi Romæ--item Gelasius, natione Afer, ex patre episcopo Valerio natus est. Quam plures etiam alii inveniuntur: qui de sacerdotibus nati apostolicæ sedi præfuerunt."

To which Gratian attaches as his own conclusion:

"Hine Augustinus ait, _Vicia parentum_ Filiis non imputentur."

Thereby throwing a slur on the said married bishops. But can. xiii., or Cænomanensem, of the same Distinctio, says:

"Cum ergo ex sacerdotibus nati in summos pontifices supra legantur esse promoti, non sunt intelligendi de fornicatione, sed de legitimis conjugiis."

I will only add that Athanasius mentions a Bishop Eupsychius (Primâ contra Arianos) who was martyred in the reign of Julian, and that the historian Sozomen says of him (_Eccl. Hist._, lib. v. ch. 11.), that when he suffered he had but recently married, [Greek: kai hoion eti nymphion onta].

H. WALTER.

DOMINGO LOMELYNE.

(Vol. i., p. 193.)

As it is not to be met with in a regular way, your correspondent may be ignorant that Domingo Lomelyne was progenitor of the _extinct baronets_ LUMLEY, his descendants having softened or corrupted his name into an identity with that of the great northern race of the latter name. They, however, retained different coat-armour in the senior line, bearing in common with many other English families of Italian, Champaigne, and generally trans-Norman origin, "a chief." Guido de St. Leodigaro and one Lucarnalsus are the earliest heroes to whom I find it assigned; but Stephen, son of the Odo, Earl of _Champaigne_ (whence Fortibus, Earl of Albemarle), also brought it to England at a very early period; and thence from the Holderness annex of de Fortibus (in spite of the allegations in Wott. _Bar._, i. 189.), Worsley perhaps copied it. The old Lumley or Lomelyne accounts connect it with the city of _Naples_. Your correspondent will find that Domingo Lomelyne was a _Genoese_, and of the _bedchamber_ to Henry VIII.; that he maintained at his own cost, and commanded, a troop of horse at Boulogne in the same reign, and had a pension of 200_l._ per annum from Queen Elizabeth in 1560. If any of your corespondents can give me the junior ramifications of this family diverging from the son and grandson of Domingo, I shall feel much obliged, provided that James Lumley, living 1725, who married Catherine Hodilow, can be satisfactorily linked with James, the son of Domingo. James and Martin were the family names, and the family was settled in London and Essex.

WM. D'OYLY BAYLEY.

PETTY CURY.

(Vol. iv., pp. 24. 120.)

Having noticed in a recent number some rather various derivations of the name "Petty Cury," which one of the streets in Cambridge bears, I have been led to examine the word "Cury," and think that a meaning may be given to it, preferable to any of the three mentioned in your paper. The three to which I refer connect the word with "cook-shops," "stables," or some kind of a court-house ("curia"). The arguments brought forward in their favour either arise from the similarity of the words (as "Cury" and "écurie"), or from the probability that either cook-shops, stables, or a court-house existed in the vicinity of the street, whence it might derive its name. With regard to the name "Cury" being derived from the cook-shops in the streets, this seems to have little to do with the question; for supposing there are some half dozen such shops there (which I do not know to be the case), it proves little as to what was the number three or four centuries ago. Secondly, "Cury" derived from "écurie:" this seems unsatisfactory, for, as nothing whatever is known about our former fellows' horses, the argument in its favour simply consists in "Cury" being similar to "écurie." The third derivation is, that "Cury" is taken from "curia," a senate or court-house. This falls to the ground from the considerations, that if it were derived from it we might expect the name to be Parva Cury and not Petty Cury; and if it be derived from it, it implies that there was some larger court existing at that time, in contradistinction to which this was called "Parva Curia." But no larger one (as the advocate of the derivation allows) did exist, so that this derivation meets the fate of the former ones.

The most probable derivation of the word is from the French "curie," a _ward_ or _district_, which certainly possesses this advantage over the three former ones, that the word is exactly the same as that of the street. The arguments in its favour are these:--In referring to a map of Cambridge dated A.D. 1574, I find the town divided into _wards_, with different names attached to them. These wards are all larger than "Petty Cury:" in the same map the name is spelt "_Peti Curie_" (_i.e._ small ward), both words being French or Norman ones, and the word "peti" being applied to it from its being smaller than any of the other wards. In former times it was not unusual to give French names to the wards and streets of a town, as may be seen any day in London, or even in Liverpool, which is comparatively a modern place. Thus the word from which I propose to derive the name "Cury" being the very same, and not requiring us to form any vague suppositions either about cook-shops, stables, or court-houses, I conclude, may be considered preferable to the three before mentioned.

W. F. R.

Trinity College, Sept. 1. 1851.

THE DAUPHIN.

(Vol. iv., p. 149.)

The communication of your correspondent ÆGROTUS respecting the claims of an individual to be the Dauphin of France and Duke of Normandy, brought to my recollection pretensions of a similar nature made by a person who, about twenty years ago, was resident in London; and was a teacher of music, as I was informed. This person introduced himself to me, in a French house of business, as the genuine Dauphin of France, the second son of Louis XVI. In justice to the _soi-disant_ Dauphin, I should state that he did not bring forward his claims abruptly, but in the course of a conversation held in his presence, relating to the claims of another pretender to the same honours. The communicator of this important intelligence of a new rival to the contested diadem, urged his claims with so much plausibility, and pressed me so earnestly to pay him a visit--seeing that I listened to his impassioned statement with decorous patience and real interest--in order that he might explain the matter more fully and at leisure--that I went to his house in the New Road, where I saw him more than once. He told me that the woman, who had all her life passed as his mother, informed him on her death-bed that he was the Duke of Normandy, and had been confided to her charge and care; and that she was told to make her escape with him by his true mother, Marie Antoinette, when that unfortunate queen eluded the murderous pursuit of her assailants in the furious attack made on the Tuileries on the 10th of August, 1792. So impressed was I by the earnestness of the narrator, and the air of truth thrown around his story--knowing also that some doubts had been started as to the death of the Dauphin in the Temple--that I offered, being then about to visit Edinburgh, which was at that time the residence of the exiled monarch Charles X. and his ill-starred family, to be the bearer to them of any memorial or other document, which the claimant to the rights of Dauphin might wish to submit to that illustrious body. A statement was accordingly drawn up, and sent by me when in Edinburgh, not to Charles X., but to her royal highness the Duchess of Angoulême; who immediately replied, requesting an interview on my part with one of the noblemen or gentlemen of her household, whom I met; and was informed by him from her royal highness, that such communications exceedingly distressed her, in recalling a past dreadful period of her life; for that there was no truth in them, and that her brother, the Duke of Normandy, died in the Temple. With deep and sincere protestations of regret at having been the cause of pain to her royal highness, and made the unconscious dupe of either a knave or a fool, instead of bringing forward an illustrious unknown to his due place in history, I took my leave; and think this account ought to scatter for ever to the winds all tales, _in esse_ or _posse_, of pretended Dauphins of France and Dukes of Normandy.

I should mention, that in my interview with the _soi-disant_ Dauphin, he showed me various portraits of Louis XVI., and then bade me look at his own features, in every attitude and form, and say if the likeness was not most striking and remarkable. I could not deny it; and in truth was so impressed with his whole account, that I began to look upon the humble individual before me with something of the reverence due to majesty, shorn of its glories.

J. M.

P.S.--I now recollect that the name of this pretended Dauphin was Mevis, and that he was said to have been seen in Regent Street by a friend of mine about five years ago; and may, for aught I know, be still living.

Oxford, Sept. 2.

Replies to Minor Queries.

_Visiting Cards_ (Vol. iv., p. 133.).--In answer to your 87th Query, it may serve in part to help to show "when visiting cards first came into use," by informing you that about six or eight years ago a house in Dean Street, Soho, was repaired (I think No. 79.), where Allison and Co., the pianoforte makers, now of the Quadrant, formerly resided; and, on removing a marble chimney-piece in the front drawing-room, four or five visiting cards were found, one with the name of "Isaac Newton" on it. The names were all _written_ on the back of common playing cards; and it is not improbable that one or more may still be in the possession of Mr. Allison, 65. Quadrant. The house in Dean Street was the residence of either Hogarth or his father-in-law.

A. MITE.

_Sardonic Smiles_ (Vol. iv., p. 18.).--I beg to refer such of your readers as take an interest in the discussion of "Sardonic Smiles" to a treatise or memoir on the subject, by a learned scholar and antiquary in the St. Petersburgh Transactions for 1851. The title of the memoir is as follows: _Die Talos-Sage und das Sardonische Lachen. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte Griechischer Sage und Kunst, von Ludwig Mercklin._ The memoir is also printed separately, from the _Mémoires des Savants Etrangers_.

J. M.

Oxford, August 4.

_Darby and Joan_ (Vol. iii., p. 38.).--As no one has answered your correspondent by referring him to a copy of this ballad, I have great pleasure in calling his attention to _A Collection of Songs, Moral, Sentimental, Instructive, and Amusing_, 4to. Cambridge, 1805. At p. 152. of this volume, the "pleasant old ditty" of "Darby and Joan" is given at length, accompanied with the music. The editor, the Rev. James Plumptre, M.A., tells us that it is "attributed to Matthew Prior." As this book is somewhat difficult to procure, your correspondent is welcome to the loan of my copy.

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

_Marriage of Bishops_ (Vol. iv., pp. 57. 125.).--In reference to the inquiry of your correspondent A. B. C., for any instances of bishops and priests who, during the first three centuries, were married after ordination, I may suggest that the Council of Nice in 325 declared it to be then "_an ancient tradition_ of the Church that they who were unmarried when promoted to holy orders should not afterwards marry."--Socrates, _Hist. Eccl._, lib. i. cap. ii.; Sozomen, _Hist. Eccl._, lib. i. c. xxiii.

May not the proper translation in the text which he quotes, 1 Cor. ix. 5., be "woman," instead of "wife;" and might not the passage be more accurately rendered by the expression "sister-woman?" Clemens Alexandrinus says (_Stromat._, lib. iii. edit. Poterii, Venet. 1757, tom. i. p. 526.): "Not as wives but as sisters did the women go round with the apostles:" and see also Matt. xxvii. 55., Mark xv. 41., and Luke viii. 3.

DORFSNAIG.

_Winifreda_ (Vol. iii., p. 27.).--LORD BRAYBROOKE has furnished your readers with a very curious list of the various printed forms in which, at different times, this popular song has been given to the world; but he has omitted one which I think ought to be placed on record. I allude to a copy contained in the third number of _The Foundling Hospital for Wit_, a rare miscellany of "curious pieces," printed for W. Webb, near St. Paul's, 8vo. 1746 (p. 23.). This work was printed in numbers, at intervals, the first bearing date 1743; and the sixth, and last, 1749. My copy is particularly interesting as having the blank names filled up in a cotemporary hand, and the authors' names, in many cases, added. The song of _Winifreda_ is assigned to "Mr. G. A. Stevens;" so that, after all, the Edinburgh reviewer may have confounded _George_ Steevens, the "commentator," with his earlier and equally facetious namesake, _George Alexander_.

George Alexander Stevens was born (if a MS. obituary in my possession may be relied on) "in the parish of St. Andrew's Holborn, 1710." He died (according to the _Biographia Dramatica_) "at Baldock in Hertfordshire, Sept. 6, 1784."

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

_George Chalmers_ (Vol. iv., 58.).--The printed books and MSS. of the late George Chalmers were disposed of by auction in 1841 and 1842 by Mr. Evans of Pall Mall. The particular MS. inquired after by J. O. occurs in the third part of the printed sale catalogue, and is numbered 1891. It is thus described by Mr. Evans:

"CHALMERS'S BIBLIOGRAPHIA SCOTICA POETICA, or NOTICES OF SCOTTISH POETS AND THEIR WORKS, from 1286 to 1806, 4 vols. Chalmers's _Notices of the Scottish Poetry, Drama, and Songs_, 2 vols., together 6 vols.

"[Star symbol] These Volumes contain a great fund of Information, and furnish very valuable Materials for a History of Scotch Poetry. They would also be very useful to Collectors."

Lot 1894. is also highly interesting. It is described as--

"RITSON'S BIBLIOGRAPHIA SCOTICA, 2 vols. Unpublished.

"[Star symbol] A very Valuable Account of Scottish Poets and Historians, drawn up with great care and indefatigable Research by Ritson. The Work was intended for Publication. These Volumes were purchased at the sale of Ritson's Library by Messrs. Longman and Constable for Forty-three Guineas, and presented to George Chalmers, Esq., who had edited Sir D. Lyndsay's Works for them gratuitously."

My catalogue of Chalmers's library, unfortunately, has not the prices or purchasers' names; and the firm of the Messrs. Evans being no longer in existence, I have no means of ascertaining the present locality of the above-mentioned MSS.

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

_The Three Estates of the Realm_ (Vol. iv., p. 115.).--W. FRASER is quite right in repudiating the _cockney_ error of "Queen, Lords, and Commons" forming the "three estates of the realm." The sovereign is _over_ the "realm;" a word which obviously designates the persons _ruled_. W. F. however does not exactly hit the mark when he infers, that "the Lords, the Clergy _in convocation_, and the Commons" are the "three estates." The phrase "assembled in Parliament" has no application to the Convocation; which moreover does not sit at Westminster, and was not exposed to the peril of the gunpowder plot. The three estates of the realm are the three orders (_états_) into which all natural-born subjects are legally divided: viz. the _clergy_, the _nobility_, and the _commonalty_. They are represented "in Parliament" by the "Lords Spiritual," the "Lords Temporal," and the "Commons" (elected by their fellows). The three estates thus meet their sovereign in the "chamber of Parliament" at the opening of every session; and there it was that the plot was laid for their destruction.

W. F. is no doubt aware that originally they all _deliberated_ also together, and in the presence of the sovereign or his commissioners: and though, for the freedom of discussion, the sovereign now withdraws, and the Commons deliberate in a separate chamber (leaving the chamber of Parliament to be used as "the House of Lords," both Spiritual and Temporal), yet to this day they all reassemble for the formal _passing_ of every act; and the authority of all three is recited by their proper names in the preamble.

The first and second estates are not fused into one, simply because they continue to deliberate and vote together as all three did at the first.

The _Convocation_ of the Clergy was altogether a different institution, which never met either the sovereign or the Parliament: but their order was _represented_ in the latter by the prelates. It is another mistake (therefore) to think the Bishops sit in the House of Lords as _Barons_.

CANONICUS EBORACENSIS.

"_You Friend drink to me Friend_" (Vol. iv., p. 59.).--When I was a boy, about sixty-five years ago, Mr. Holder (a surgeon of some eminence at that time) was a frequent visitor at our house, and much amused us by several catches in which (under his instruction) we delighted to join; and among which was--

"_I_ friend, drink to _thee_, friend, as _my_ friend drank to _me_; _I_ friend, charge _thee_, friend, as _my_ friend charg[=e]d _me_; S[)o] d[)o] _thou_, friend, dr[)i]nk t[)o] _thy_ friend, as _my_ friend drank to _me_, For the more we drink liquor the merrier are we."

R. S. S.

56. Fenchurch Street.

_Broad Halfpenny Down_ (Vol. iv., p. 133.).--_Broad halpeny_, or _broad halfpenny_, signifies to be quit of a certain custom exacted for setting up tables or boards in fairs or markets; and those that were freed by the King's charter of this custom, had this word put in their letters-patent: by reason whereof, the freedom itself (for brevity of speech) is called _broad halfpenny_. (_Les Termes de la Ley._) Hence the origin of "Broad-halfpenny Down."

FRANCISCUS.

Whence the name I cannot say, but would just note the fact, that sixteen miles from London, on the Brighton railway, is a breezy upland called _Farthing Down_. The country folk deem it a sufficiently famous place, and one told me "that was once London;" meaning, a town stood there before London was built. It is a locality well known to those who hunt with the Croydon pack.

P. M. M.

_Horner Family_ (Vol. iv., p. 131.).--Is it true that the following rhymes apply to one of the Horners of Mells?

"Little Jack Horner Sat in a corner, Eating a Christmas pie, He put in his thumb, And pulled out a plum, And said what a good boy am I."

The plum being 100,000_l_. I have been told a long story on the matter by Somersetshire people.

P. M. M.

_The Man of Law_ (Vol. iv., p. 153.).--The lines so felicitously quoted by Mr. Serjeant Byles at a recent trial were thus given in _The Times_:

"The man of law who never saw The way to buy and sell, Wishing to rise by merchandise, Shall never speed him well."

This version is rather nearer the original than that of your correspondent MR. KING, who avowedly writes from memory. The author of the lines was Sir Thomas More. They are thus given in "_A Mery Jest how a Sergeant would learn to play the Freere_. Written by Maister Thomas More in hys youth:"

"A man of lawe that never sawe The wayes to bye and sell, Wenyng to ryse by marchaundyse, I praye God spede hym well!"

My quotation is at second-hand from Warton's _History of English Poetry_, sect. xliii.

C. H. COOPER.

Cambridge, August 30. 1851.

[We are also indebted to T. LAWRENCE and BARTANUS for replying to this Query. The latter adds, "The poem is given at length in the History of the English Language prefixed to the 4to. edition of Johnson's _Dictionary_."]

_Riddle_ (Vol. iv., p. 153).--The riddle (query _rebus_?) for the solution of which your correspondent A. W. H. inquires, may be found printed in vol. i. pp. 109, 110. of the poems of Dr. Byrom, well known as the author of the "Pastoral," inserted with much commendation by Addison in the 8th volume of the _Spectator_, and the supposed inventor of the universal English short-hand. The author of the rebus seems to have been then unknown (1765), and it is said to have been "commonly ascribed to Lord Chesterfield." Whether this was asserted in jest, does not appear: but Dr. Byrom, to whom application for a solution had been made, in the course of his reply, given in his own peculiar style, has the following passage, which may be a guide to those who may now seek to arrive at the mystery:--

"Made for excuse, you see, upon the whole, The too great number of words, that poll For correspondency to ev'ry line; And make the meant one tedious to divine: But we suspect that other points ambiguous, And eke unfair, contribute to fatigue us.

"For first, with due submission to our betters; What antient city would have eighteen letters? Or more?--for, in the latter lines, the clue May have _one_ correspondent word or two: Clue should have said, if only one occurr'd, Not correspondent _words_ to each, but _word_.

"From some suspicions of a bite, we guess The number of the letters to be less; And, from expression of a certain cast, Some joke, unequal to the pains at last: Could you have said that all was right and clever, We should have try'd more fortunate endeavour.

"_It should contain, should this same_ JEU DE MOTS, _Clean-pointed turn, short, fair, and_ A PROPOS; _Wit without straining; neatness without starch; Hinted, tho' hid; and decent, tho' tis arch; No vile idea should disgrace a rebus--_ SIC DICUNT MUSÆ, SIC EDICIT PHOEBUS."

T.W. (1)

[We are also indebted to R. P. for a similar Reply.]

_Speculative Difficulties_ (Vol. iii., p. 477.).--As L. M. M. R. is not certain as to the title and author of the book he inquires about, perhaps he may find it under the title of _The Semi-sceptic, or the Common Sense of Religion considered_, by the Rev. J. T. James, M.A.; London, 1825. This is a very unpretending but very beautiful work, of some 400 pages. The author died Bishop of Calcutta.

O. T. DOBBIN.