Part 4

As I live at a distance from any large library, and have consulted in vain such biographical works as my own scanty shelves afford, I shall be greatly obliged to any of your correspondents who have access to our public libraries, to inform me who Lucas Lossius was, and where any account of him may be met with? Also, who Wendelinus Helbachius, Stigelius, and Bernardus Bomgardius were, whose "Disticha" are interspersed throughout the volume? In the "Epistola Nuncupatoria" mention is made of "Joannis Stigelij, Poetæ clarissimi, nostra ætate," and of "M. Bernardi Bomgardij, Ludimoderatoris Vlzeniani;" but I cannot find any account of these worthies.

I ought to add that each Sunday or Saint's Day is preceded by a curious woodcut representing the subject of which the Gospel treats.

R. BN.

[Lucas Lossius, of Lunenburg, was a Lutheran divine and schoolmaster, well skilled in music, who published at Nuremberg, in 1553, _Erotemata Musicæ practicæ_, and together with Melancthon, the Lutheran ritual, _Psalmodia, seu Cantica sacra veteris ecclesiæ selecta_. At the period of the Reformation, the Lutherans preserved more of the ancient hymns and music of the church in their services than the Calvinists. Some account of Lossius is given in Hawkins's _History of Music_, vol. iii. p. 102. There is an edition of _Annotationes Scholasticæ_, with the curious woodcuts printed in the year 1560, at Leipsic.]

_The "Athenian Oracle."_--Can you inform me who were the authors of the "Athenian Oracle," or, in other words, the members of the "Learned Society" who conducted this work? You may feel some interest in it as a kind of prototype and progenitor of your own "N. & Q." Your work, as I apprehend, does not profess to solve and answer so many nice puzzling points in divinity, philosophy, love, &c., as that of the _Oracle_, which furnishes us with a curious picture of the wants, opinions, and manners of the age in which it appeared; but _yours_, though neither dipping so deeply nor ranging so widely, ought to be highly prized as the exponent of the demands of our times more improved, enlightened, and not less inquisitive, and as affording to some of your correspondents far from the great metropolis of letters, a ready channel for information, much to their instruction and pleasure. Pardoning this digression, the copy of the _Athenian Oracle_ I possess is in 3 vols. 8vo., purporting to be an entire collection of all the valuable questions and answers in the old Athenian Mercuries, &c., by a member of the Athenian Society; London, printed for Andrew Bell at the Cross Keys and Bible in Cornhill, near Stocks Market, the second volume 1703, the first and third 1704. The copy bears an autograph on the fly-leaf; "Ex Libris Thomas Browne, Ex Dono plurim; M'ri Guil Carstairs Acad. Edinburg. primarij professoris Cui omnia (two words obscure) Ed. Nov. 23, 1706." The historical celebrity of Carstairs is a _small feather in the cap_ of the copy, but unimportant to some farther knowledge from you of the book and its authors, the former having often supplied much rational fireside entertainment.

N.

Glasgow.

[_The Athenian Gazette_, afterwards called _The Athenian Mercury_, swelled at last to twenty volumes folio; these becoming scarce, a collection of the most valuable questions and answers was reprinted under the title of _The Athenian Oracle_, in 4 vols. 8vo. The fourth volume contains a Supplement, to which is prefixed "The History of the Athenian Society," and an "Essay upon Learning." It was projected by the celebrated John Dunton, who says, "My first project was the _Athenian Gazette_. As the Athenian Society had their first meeting in my brain, so it has been kept ever since religiously secret: but I will now oblige the reader with a true discovery of the _question-project_, and of the several persons that engaged in it." These were his brother-in-law, the Rev. Samuel Wesley and Mr. Richard Sault, who were occasionally assisted by Dr. Norris. The work was also countenanced by several of the most eminent writers of the age; and was honoured in particular with a commendatory poem by Swift. Some curious notices respecting Dunton and his numerous literary projects will be found in the _Life and Errors of John Dunton_, 2 vols. 8vo., 1818; and in Nichols' _Literary Anecdotes_, vol. v. pp. 59-83.]

Replies.

FRENCH REVOLUTIONS FORETOLD.

(Vol. v., p. 100.)

A remarkable instance of foresight relative to the fate of some of the French sovereigns appears in an epistle of Erasmus to King Francis I.:

"Prætexunt fidei titulum, sed revera aliud agunt; moliuntur tyrannidem, etiam in capita Principum. Huc tendunt per cuniculos. Nisi Princeps ipsorum voluntati per omnia paruerit, dicetur fautor Hæreticorum; et destitui poterit per Ecclesiam; hoc est, per aliquos conjuratos Pseudomonachos et Pseudotheologos."

Richer, Doctor of the Sorbonne, after having alluded to this passage, uses the following very striking language:

"Cæterum regno Franciæ his artibus everso, (quod omen Deus avertat,) reliquis Monarchiis Christianis quæ supererunt eadem manet pestis; ut prophetia Apostoli, _de iniquitatis mysterio_, et politicarum Potestatum ruina atque interitu, complementum sortiatur; cujus pestis et ruinæ complementum in dies singulos Bullæ Coenæ Domini et Directorii Inquisitorum arcanis promovetur. _Tumque demum, in fine sæculorum, seditiones, conspirationes, et bella plusquam civilia fervebunt, propter Potestatum sæculi exarmatorum imbecillitatem atque impotentiam; quæ nec sibi ipsis, nec aliis, sufficienter consulere poterunt; quia omnes imperare, et nemo parere volet_: quibus de bellis consule caput 24. Matthæi."

_Apologia pro Joanne Gersonio_, pp. 203-4. Lugd. Bat. 1676.

R. G.

GRIMESDYKE.

(Vol. iv. _passim._)

NAUTICUS is informed that in Norfolk one of the hundreds, or subdivisions of the county, is called _Grimshoo_ or _Grimshow_, after (as it is supposed) a Danish leader of the name of _Grime_ or _Gryme_. He was undoubtedly either _Præsitus Comitatus_ or _Centuriæ Præpositus_ of that part of the country, and gave his name to the hundred as hundred-greeve, which name it still retains. In about the centre of this hundred is a very curious Danish encampment, in a semicircular form, consisting of about twelve acres.

In this space are a great number of large deep pits, joined in a regular manner, one near to another, in form of a quincunx, the largest in the centre, where the general's or commander's tent was placed. These pits are so deep and numerous as to be able to conceal a very great army. At the east end of this entrenchment is a large tumulus, pointing towards Thetford, from which it is about five or six miles distant; and which might possibly have served as a watch tower, or place of signal: and here the hundred court used to be called. This place also is known by the name of _The Holes_, or _Grimes-graves_. This part of the country, being open, was a great seat of war between the Saxons and Danes, as appears from many tumuli throughout this hundred, erected over the graves of leaders who fell in battle; or as tokens of victory, to show how far they had led their armies and conquered.--See _Blomfield_ in loco.

J. F. F.

West Newton.

To the various instances already recorded in "N. & Q.," of ancient earthworks having received the name "Grimesdyke," the following may be added.

One on Cranbourne Chase, Dorset; three in Berkshire, viz., one near Silchester, one near Oare, where also are Grimsbury, and Grimsbury Forest; another, intersected by the Thames, near Wallingford; another near Witney, Oxfordshire.

The great fossa and vallum of Lollius Urbicus in Scotland, is called Graham's and Grime's Dyke. The frequency of its application to various earthworks in such distant parts of the kingdom may perhaps be considered sufficient evidence that the name is not derived from that of any landed proprietor, as suggested by one of your correspondents. I have no doubt the derivation suggested by your first correspondent, NAUTICUS, is the true one, viz., that it is of Saxon origin, signifying Wizard, or the Evil Spirit, which indicates, not only that these earthworks were in existence in Saxon times, but that their origin was even then so remote and mysterious that they were supposed to be the work of supernatural agency. Grimesdyke, described by NAUTICUS as beginning near Berkhamsted, Herts (not Hants, as misprinted in "N. & Q."), and running across the Chiltern hills, is mentioned, _temp._ Henry III., in a charter of Edmund, Earl of Cornwall, granting Ashridge to the fraternity of the Bonhommes:

"Usque ad quoddam fossatum quod dicitur Grymesdich."

If this should meet the eyes of my friend NAUTICUS, wherever in the broad seas he may happen to be, he will be glad to hear that this extensive earthwork of antiquity is now undergoing the investigation of an Archæological Society, of which he is an esteemed member. I may further remark that the family name of Grimesdike is doubtless from some ancient place so named, and not these several places from the family. The armorial bearings of the family would at once suggest this conclusion. I have not found the name given to any ancient work in Wales, which of course would not be the case, if it be of Saxon origin.

W. H. K.

POET REFERRED TO BY BACON.

(Vol. iv., p. 257.)

The poet referred to by Bacon is not the author of the _Mirror for Magistrates_, but ARIOSTO, whose _Orlando Furioso_ was then popular in the recent translation of Sir John Harrington. The allegory will be found at the close of the thirty-fourth and commencement of the thirty-fifth books:

"Further, the Duke did in that place behold, That when the threads were spent that had been spun, Their names in brass, in silver, or in gold, Were wrote, and so into great heaps were done; From which a man that seemed wondrous old, With whole loads of these names away did run, And turn'd again us fast, the way he went, Nor e'er weary was, nor ever spent.

"A heap of names within his cloak he bore, And in the river did them all unlade; Or, to say truth, away he cast them all Into the stream which Lethe we do call.

"He hurl'd therein full many a precious name, Where millions soon into the bottom sank, Hardly in every thousand one was found, That was not in the gulf quite lost and drown'd.

"Yet all about great store of birds there flew As vulture, carrion crows, and chatt'ring pyes, And many more of sundry kind and hue, Making lewd harmony with their loud cries; These when the careless wretch the treasure threw Into that stream, did all they could devise, What with their talons some, and some with beak, To save some names, but find themselves too weak.

"Only two swans sustain'd so great a poise, In spite of him that sought them all to drown, These two do still take up the names they list, And bare them safe away, and never misst.

"They caught them ere they to the stream arriv'd, Then went they, with the names they had recover'd, Up to a hill, that stood the water nigh, On which a stately church was builded high.

"This place is sacred to immortal Fame, And evermore a nymph stood at the gate And took the names ... ... Then all about the church she hang'd the same Before the sacred image, in such rate As they might then well be assur'd for ever, Spite of that wretch, in safety to persever.

"But as the swans that there still flying are, With written names, unto that sacred port, So here Historians learn'd, and Poets rare, Preserve then in clear fame and good report."

S. W. SINGER.

JOHNSON'S HOUSE, BOLT COURT.

(Vol. v., p. 176.)

A correspondent discussing the question of the site, or of the continued existence, of the house in Bolt Court in which Johnson lived and died, mentions that one person now living called there during the last illness of our sublime moralist. I believe he refers to Mr. Rogers.

The fact is that there is also a lady, an inhabitant of Piccadilly, Viscountess Keith, who not only grew from childhood to the age of twenty in the constant association of the Doctor, but who is also mentioned by Madame D'Arblay as having been a visitor at Bolt Court in 1784. Whether the noble lady referred to, at the extraordinary age she has reached (she was the eldest Miss Thrale), could solve from memory your friend's doubts as to this classical locality, I know not.

M. A.

I am in a position to assure MR. EDWIN LECHLADE that Dr. Johnson's house was burnt down in 1819, the premises having been long previously occupied by the most eminent English printer of his own or any other time, Mr. Thomas Bensley, to whose energy the world is indebted for the perfection of the printing machine.

The house of Johnson's friend, Mr. Allen the printer, was not destroyed by the disastrous fire which reduced to ashes the Doctor's residence; indeed only one corner of it was injured; and, with that exception, it stands as it was built shortly after the Great Fire of London.

Mr. Allen's house stands at the head of Bolt Court; Dr. Johnson's stood to its left. On the site of the latter was erected, after the before-mentioned fire, a spacious printing-office, and both are now in the occupation of Mr. Tyler.

The _Gentleman's Magazine_ (1819, part i., p. 575.), in giving an account of this fire, says in a note:

"It may be interesting to some of our readers to know that the house in Bolt Court, formerly the residence of Dr. Johnson, formed part of Mr. Bensley's office, and is now entirely destroyed. A view of it is preserved in the _European Magazine_ for 1810."

The _European Magazine_ (1810, vol. lvii. pp. 353-4.) contains, besides the view above-mentioned, an article to which your correspondent may be referred, in confirmation of the fact that the house occupied by Dr. Johnson was the one I have referred to, and was not exactly opposite the "Dr. Johnson tavern." The view, I am told by one who well recollects the old house, and is a great lover of Johnsoniana, is a correct representation of it.

Timperley's _Dictionary of Printers and Printing_, also, in relating the occurrence of the fire of Messrs. Bensley's premises, states that a part of it was formerly the residence of Dr. Johnson.

TEE BEE.

In answer to the Query of EDWIN LECHLADE, being in a position to give you unquestionable information, I will, to quote your correspondent's words, let the question be set at rest. Of the house in which Dr. Johnson lived and died, not one brick is left upon another. It was destroyed totally by fire in 1819; and the partywall between that and Mr. Allen's house alone remains, being the west wall of that large residence. When up Bolt Court, you turn to the left through an iron gate leading to a flight of stone steps to the printing-office now occupied by Mr. Tyler, and _where those stone steps are_, stood the doctor's residence. I know of no relic that was saved except the _scraper_, which was distorted into a curious shape by the action of the fire, and being firmly fixed in a heavy stone, it lay about the yard for years.

The late well-known printer Mr. Bensley succeeded Mr. Allen there in business in 1783, going at once to reside in his house _next door_ to Dr. Johnson, whom, of course, as a close neighbour, he often saw, and whose funeral he witnessed. After the Doctor's death the Rev.--Stockdale, of the Church of England, occupied the house; next to him it was tenanted by a Rev.--Moir, (I believe) a Presbyterian; next, by one Copley, an old tailor, whom I have teased many times when a boy; for some of us youngsters having overheard him once in a soliloquy groaning, "Dear me--and the buttons all wrong!" on passing him it became a _mot_ among us expressed sufficiently loud to reach his ears, when he would look unutterable things. He was a worthy but somewhat cross old man, in very respectable circumstances. His was the last family which ever occupied the premises as a dwelling-house; I knew him there for about twenty years. During his abode the freehold was put up for sale by auction, as well as of Allen's house; Mr. Bensley purchased both. This was somewhere about 1804-1807. But as Copley had a lease, he did not vacate till about 1814, when Mr. Bensley appropriated the two houses to his printing purposes (and there, it may not be unworthy of notice, was steam-printing first practised),--so occupied the said premises were, till destroyed by fire in 1819. Mr. Bensley's eldest surviving son succeeded him in 1820, but did not, in re-constructing the premises, build on the site of Dr. Johnson's house, though _a part_ thereof has since been covered. The map--a very fragile, worm-eaten affair--shows the exact dimensions of the house, the place where the walls stood, &c. The property remains in Mr. Bensley's family. I have often heard Mr. Bensley describe the Doctor and his funeral.

The print in the _European Magazine_ is an accurate representation of the appearance of this ancient and gloomy house in the dark corner; but it had many comforts, and "a large garden," in which I have been; it is now all built upon, and has been covered for nearly half a century. Some yet living may have visited Dr. Johnson there: I have often conversed with others who are dead that did--the late Mr. Bowyer Nichols, Mr. Cradock (of Leicestershire), Mr. A. Strahan, and others mentioned in the Doctor's works, when gratifying their curiosity by showing them over the house; and it has fallen to my lot to do so to many literary characters. Indeed as to the place where Dr. Johnson lived and died, there is no more room for doubt than as to where old London bridge stood. I have many times been with the late Mr. James Boswell (son of Dr. Johnson's biographer) in the rather dismal parlour--which spot, it is not to be wondered at, had a peculiar attraction for _him_.

There is _no_ kind of foundation for assigning Dr. Johnson's residence to that where Cobbett lived or wrote--it was a mere joke. As to the "Johnson's Head" tavern, it was an upholsterer's manufactory at the time of Dr. Johnson's death. I myself knew an old man of the name of _Hale_ residing in it, and carrying on that occupation so early as 1800, who had doubtless been there before Dr. Johnson's death; his son followed him, and continued till about 1826-1830 in those premises. By the same token (as Paddy says), while now addressing "N. & Q." (though nearly 300 miles from the spot) I am writing at a table Hale sen. made for me in that house in 1818.

The greater part of Mr. Bensley's extensive premises was _twice_ burned down; but on neither occasion was Allen's house destroyed. It yet stands, though so altered and improved as not to resemble the original edifice. Mr. Tyler's counting-house, by the iron gate at the S. W. corner, however, is left just as used by Allen (except a passage cut off at the end), the panelling, &c., just the same, being the _only_ part remaining unaltered: there was then, of course, no door out to the stone steps, as there stood Dr. Johnson's parlour. In this counting-house, no doubt, Dr. Johnson often was; and in the adjoining parlour he often fed. It was a very old-fashioned room, as I well remember it upwards of half a century ago. His better parlour, or drawing-room, was large and handsomely furnished for the period, with three windows, and two ancient pier-glasses fixed to tables, gilt and adorned according to the taste of the times. Mr. Bensley bought these and a few other household matters, which remained _in statu quo_ till 1805-1808.

I have seen some prints of the inside of Dr. Johnson's house, which do not give a very accurate idea of the appearance of the rooms, &c.; but, I repeat it, the view of the front in the _European Magazine_ is excellent.

The celebrity of Dr. Johnson may induce you to insert this, which, without that influence, I am aware would be too tedious.

B. B.

COOPER'S MINIATURE OF CROMWELL.

(Vol. iv., p. 368.; Vol. v., p. 189. &c.)

It is only within a few months that the existence of the "N. & Q." became known to me. It seemed likely to be such an useful and amusing publication, from the description I received of it from a literary friend (now appointed vice-consul to the Isle of Mytilene), that I lost no time in becoming a subscriber; and I am rejoiced to add, that my expectations have not been disappointed, though I have not had time to read the Notes or attend to the Queries as fully as I could have wished till very lately.

However, I have now observed amongst the Replies, Vol. v., p. 189., a Note relating to the miniature of Cromwell by Cooper, with several references to other Notes and Queries upon the same subject, originating with a Query from LORD BRAYBROOKE in Vol. iv., p. 368. If the following appears to you worthy of insertion, pray use it.

I have a beautiful miniature of Oliver Cromwell, painted with very great care, and which has every appearance of being an original by Cooper. I remember it all my life in my father's (Lord Holland's) room at Holland House; and on his death in 1840, it was left by him to his friend and mine, John Allen, late master of Dulwich College, who died in 1843, and left it with his books to me.

Cromwell is painted in armour, with a remarkably clean, plain, turned-down shirt collar; his usual countenance, somewhat stern, but full of the expression of good sense and intelligence; reddish hair, and a small portion of it under the lower lip. On the back is written in my father's handwriting:

"This miniature was given to me when at school by Lady Diana Beauclerk, who assured me that it was an original by Cooper, and that it had been long in the possession of the Beauclerk family, who had it from Charles II. (Signed) VASSALL HOLLAND."

Lady D. Beauclerk, herself distinguished as an artist, was the daughter of the Duke of St. Albans, a lineal descendant of Charles II.

There is an engraving from a miniature of Cromwell in Carlyle's life of him, said to be in the possession of Archdeacon Berners, which I believe to be also by Cooper. It is larger than mine, and even better painted. I have seen it, but cannot recollect where or when.

C. FOX, MAJOR-GENERAL.

Addison Road.

P.S.--I have left my miniature with my friend Mr. Domenic Colnaghi at Pall Mall East, for the inspection of any of your correspondents. It will be there till the _31st March_.

THE QUEEN OF THE ISLE OF MAN.

(Vol. v., p. 132.)

In an interesting communication from MR. WM. SIDNEY GIBSON in a late Number of your publication there occurs the following statement, to which I beg to add a few remarks. He says:

"After the death of Magnus, the island was seized by Alexander III. of Scotland. A daughter and heiress of Reginald sued for it against John Baliol, before Edward I. of England, as lord paramount of Man.

"_Rot. Parl._, 31 Edw. I."

And farther on he states:

"From sundry records it appears that Edward II. and Edward III. committed its custody to various persons, and the latter at length conferred his right to it upon William Montacute, Earl of Salisbury, in consideration, probably, of that valiant earl having by his arms regained the island from the Scots, who had resumed possession, and of the circumstance that his grandmother, the wife of Simon de Montacute, was sister and heiress of one of the former kings of Man, and related to the lady who had claimed it as her inheritance on the death of Magnus."