Part 3
_Milton's Rib-bone._--In Vol. v., p. 275., mention is made of Cromwell's skull; so it may not be out of place to tell you that I have handled one of Milton's ribs. Cowper speaks indignantly of the desecration of our divine poet's grave, on which shameful occurrence some of the bones were clandestinely distributed. One fell to the lot of an old and esteemed friend, and between forty-five and forty years ago, at his house, not many miles from London, I have often examined the said rib-bone. That friend is long since dead; but his son, now in the vale of years, lives, and I doubt not, from the reverence felt to the great author of _Paradise Lost_, that he has religiously preserved the precious relic. It might not be agreeable to him to have his name published; but from his tastes he, being a person of some distinction in literary pursuits, is likely to be a reader of "N. & Q.," and if this should catch his eye, _he_ may be induced to send you some particulars. I know he is able to place the matter beyond a doubt.
B. B.
Pembroke.
Queries.
THE DANES IN ENGLAND.
Since I arrived in England my friend Mr. Thoms has called my attention to the following Note by the "English Opium Eater" in the _London Magazine_ for May, 1823, p. 556., on a subject of great interest to me with reference to the views I have advanced in my recently published volume, entitled _An Account of the Danes and Norwegians in England, Scotland, and Ireland_.
"I take this opportunity of mentioning a curious fact which I ascertained about twelve years ago, when studying the Danish. The English and Scotch philologists have generally asserted that the Danish invasions in the ninth and tenth centuries, and their settlements in various parts of the island (as Lincolnshire, Cumberland, &c.), had left little or no traces of themselves in the language. This opinion has been lately reasserted in Dr. Murray's work on the European languages. It is, however, inaccurate. For the remarkable dialect spoken amongst the lakes of Cumberland and Westmoreland, together with the names of the mountains, tarns, &c., most of which resist all attempts to unlock their meaning from the Anglo-Saxon, or any other form of the Teutonic, are pure Danish, generally intelligible from the modern Danish of this day, but in all cases from the elder form of the Danish. Whenever my Opera Omnia are collected, I shall reprint a little memoir on this subject, which I inserted about four years ago in a provincial newspaper: or possibly, before that event, for the amusement of the lake tourists, Mr. Wordsworth may do me the favour to accept it as an appendix to his work on the English Lakes."
Can any reader of "N. & Q." refer me to the paper in which this "little memoir" was inserted? (it was probably in a Cumberland or Westmoreland paper somewhere about the year 1819;) or inform me whether it ever appeared as an appendix to any work of Wordsworth's on the English lakes?
J. J. A. WORSAAE.
Minor Queries.
_Taylor Family._--A great favour would be conferred by any Worcestershire correspondent who could furnish any information as to the family, arms, place of burial, of Samuel Taylor, who was Mayor of Worcester in 1731-32, and again in 1737. Are any descendants or connexions still resident in that neighbourhood? The information is required for genealogical purposes.
E. S. TAYLOR.
_Analysis._--Is algebra rightly termed analysis? Edgar Poe, a very queer American author, maintains the negative: he also enters into the question as to whether games of skill and chance are useful to the analytical powers, and gives the preference to draughts over chess, and to whist over either. But he seems to think the chief applications of analysis are to the interpretation of cryptographies, the disentanglement of police puzzles, and the solution of charades!
There is, however, plausibility in his theory that a good analyst must be both poet and mathematician. This is Ruskin's "imagination penetrative:" such a faculty belonged to the minds of Verulam and Newton, of Kepler and Galileo. I do not, however, see the necessity of Ruskin's threefold division of the "imaginative faculty." Would not "imagination analytic and creative" suffice?
MORTIMER COLLINS.
_Old Playing Cards._--In 1763 Dr. Stukeley exhibited to the Antiquarian Society a singular pack of cards, dating before the year 1500. They were purchased in 1776, by Mr. Tutet, and on his decease they were bought by Mr. Gough. In 1816 they had passed into the possession of Mr. Triphook, the bookseller. Query, where are they now?
EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.
_Canongate Marriages._--According to the _Newgate Calendar_, vol. ii. p. 269., there seems to have existed, about the year 1745, a sort of _Gretna Green_ in the Canongate of Edinburgh. It is long since I read that _famous_ work, but I made an excerpt at the time, which is as follows:
"It was customary for some of the ministers of the Church of Scotland, who were out of employment, to marry people at the ale-houses, in the same manner that the Fleet marriages were conducted in London. Sometimes people of fortune thought it prudent to apply to these marriage brokers; but, as their chief business lay among the lower ranks of people, they were deridingly called by the name of 'Buckle the Beggars.' Most of these marriages were solemnized at public-houses in the Canongate."
This statement "comes in such a questionable shape," and from so "questionable" a quarter, that really one cannot be blamed for questioning it. Surely the ministers referred to must have been men deprived of their charges? Can any correspondent of "N. & Q." speak to this subject? I am certain that the Scottish clergy of that age would never have suffered any _Buckle the Beggars_ to rank with them as regular preachers, though "out of employment."
R. S. F.
Perth.
_Devil, Proper Name._--Will any of your correspondents kindly inform me whether there are any persons now existing of the name of Devil; or who bear the devil on their coat of arms? In 1847 I saw upon the panel of a carriage in London the _devil's head_ for a crest. To what family does this belong? "Robin the Devil" is mentioned in _Rokeby_, cant. vi. st. 32. The following is from the _Monthly Mirror_, August, 1799:
"Formerly there were many persons surnamed 'the Devil.' In an ancient book we read of one Rogerius Diabolus, Lord of Montresor." "An English monk, Willelmus, cognomento Diabolus. Again, Hughes le Diable, Lord of Lusignan. Robert, Duke of Normandy, son of William the Conqueror, was surnamed 'the Devil.' In Norway and Sweden there were two families of the name of 'Trolle,' in English, 'Devil;' and every branch of these families had an emblem of the devil for their coat of arms. In Utrecht there was a family called 'Teufel' (or Devil); and in Brittany there was a family of the name of 'Diable.'"
W. R. DEERE SALMON.
_Hendurucus du Booys; Helena Leonora de Sieveri._--Their portraits engraved by Cornelius Vischer from paintings by Vandyke. Who were they?
G. A. C.
_Can a Clergyman marry himself?_--If a clergyman were to perform the marriage service in his own case, would it be valid? Has such an occurrence ever been known?
CONSTANT READER.
_Ground Ice._--Has any satisfactory explanation been given of the mode in which the peculiar substance termed _ground ice_ is formed in certain rivers. I am most familiar with it as seen in the Wiltshire Avon. It is seen in some rivers in Lincolnshire, where I am told it is called _ground-gru_. One who has noticed it in the Teviot says, that the inhabitants there call it "sludge."
The fact of ice being formed at the _bottom_ of streams, where we should expect a higher temperature, is so curious an anomaly, that it would be desirable to collect instances where and at what depths it is observed.
J. C. E.
_Astrologer-Royal._--I remember, in a former volume of "N. & Q.," some mention is made of Almanacks, Astrologers, &c. It escaped me at the time to tell you that the ancient office of King's Astrologer happens not to have been subjected to formal abolition, and, being hereditary, it is now vested in the person of Mr. Gadbury, resident at Bristol. He is auctioneer to the Court of Bankruptcy, and a very worthy man. He tells me there is neither salary nor privilege attached to his nominal post.
B. B.
Pembroke.
_William, second Duke of Hamilton._--Can any of your numerous correspondents inform me if there is any monumental inscription, or other memorial, dedicated to the memory of William, second Duke of Hamilton, who expired on the 12th of September, 1651, from the effects of a wound received at the battle of Worcester on the 3rd of the same month? He was interred before the high altar in Worcester Cathedral, having died at the Commandery in that city; but there is neither
"storied urn or animated bust"
as a record of his sepulture within that venerable pile.
In making an inspection of the Commandery, an old building, probably once belonging to the Knights Templars, I was gravely told, and my informant even showed me the very spot beneath the floor of one of the rooms, in which, as tradition points out, he is said to have been buried.
J. B. WHITBORNE.
_The Ring Finger._--Having observed various remarks on the ring finger in your last volume, I shall be much obliged if you can give me any information on the subject. As a lady of my acquaintance has had the misfortune to lose that finger, it has been said that she cannot be legally married in the Church of England in consequence, and had better, if ever solicited, cross the border to Scotland to make the marriage binding.
A RING.
_Bishop of London's Palace in Bishopsgate._--Historians agree that King Henry VII., on his arrival in London after the battle of Bosworth, took up his residence for a few days at the Bishop of London's palace, and Bacon tells us[4] this palace was in Bishopsgate Street. Can any of your readers inform me where it stood?
J. G.
[Footnote 4: [Where? Our correspondent should have given the reference.--ED.]]
_Earls of Clare_ (Vol. v., p. 205.).--Can H. C. K., who appears to have access to an old pedigree of this family, answer any of the following Queries?
1. Which was the Richard Earl of Clare whose daughter married William de Braose, who was starved to death at Windsor in 1240?
2. Who was Isabel de Clare, who married William de Braose, grandson of the above?
3. Who was Alice, daughter of Richard Earl of Clare, who married William third Baron Percy?
4. Who was Mabel, daughter of an Earl of Clare, who married Nigel de Mowbray, a baron at the coronation of Richard I.?
5. Who was ---- de Clare, treasurer of the church of York, living between 1150 and 1200?
E. H. Y.
_Lothian's Scottish Historical Maps._--
Ptolemy's Scotland, A.D. 146. Richard's Ditto, A.D. 446. Roman Ditto, A.D. 80 to 446. Pictish Ditto, A.D. 446 to 843. Picts and Scots Ditto, A.D. 843 to 1071. Sheriffdoms, Earldoms, and Lordships of the 15th Century. Highlands in Clans, 1715-45. Track of Prince Charles Stuart.
I should be glad to hear where this progressive series, or any of them, might be met with. I understand it was considered a very complete Atlas of Scotland in the olden times; but on applying to my Edinburgh bookseller, I was informed they were out of print. I think they bear date 1834, and I should think the plates are still in existence. They were said to be very accurate, and the price was under a pound. They were published by John Lothian, formerly Geographer and Map Publisher, Edinburgh.
ELGINENSIS.
_Sally Lunn._--Partial to my sweet tea-cake, I often think when eating it of Sally Lunn, the pretty pastrycook of Bath, to whose inventive genius we are said to be indebted for this farinaceous delicacy. Is anything known of Sally Lunn? is she a personage or a myth?
SHIRLEY HIBBERD.
"_Bough-House._"--At the late assizes for the county of Suffolk, the witnesses in two separate cases spoke of a "bough-house," and the explanation given was, that certain houses where beer, &c. was sold at fair-time only had boughs outside to indicate their character. As an illustration of the familiar proverb, "Good wine needs no _bush_," and as the word does not occur in Forby's _Glossary of East Anglia_, it may perhaps deserve a place.
BURIENSIS.
_Dyson's Collection of Proclamations._--The curious collection of old proclamations, &c., in the library of the Society of Antiquaries is sometimes referred to as _Dyson's_, sometimes as _Ames's_. Was Dyson the original collector? and, if so, when did he live?
EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.
"_The Hour and the Man._"--Can any of your correspondents inform me what is the origin of this expression? It occurs in _Guy Mannering_, and printed in Italics, but not within inverted commas. Is it a quotation?
T. D.
Minor Queries Answered.
_Jacobite Toast._--
"God bless the King, I mean the Faith's Defender. God bless--no harm in blessing--the Pretender; Who that Pretender is, and who is King, God bless us all--that's quite another thing."
Can any of your readers say who is the author of the above?
G. M. B.
[The above lines, "intended to allay the violence of party spirit!" were spoken extempore by the celebrated John Byrom, of Manchester, a Nonjuror, but better known as the inventor of the Universal Short Hand. They will be found in his _Miscellaneous Poems_, vol. i. p. 342. edit. 1773.]
_Rev. Barnabas Oley._--The part played by this active and loyal clergyman, who was deprived of his vicarage of Great Gransden in Huntingdonshire during the interregnum, is generally known to readers of the early history of that period. Walker, who has a notice of him (_Sufferings of the Clergy_, p. 141.), says he died in 1684, but does not tell us whether he was married or not. I believe he was, and left descendants; and the object of this Query is to ascertain what were the names of his children, and with whom they intermarried.
D.
Rotherfield.
[We do not think Barnabas Oley was ever married, as his will, preserved among Bishop Kennett's Collections, does not mention either wife or children among the legacies to "his near kindred and blood." His will, with its codicils, are curious documents, and ought to be printed. See the _Lansdowne MSS._, No. 988. fol. 94.]
_Sweet-singers._--Swift says, in his _Abstract of Collins_, "Why should not William Penn the Quaker, or any Anabaptist, Papist, Muggletonian, Jew, or _Sweet-singer_, have liberty to come into St. Paul's church?" Wanted, some historical notice of the Sweet-singers.
A. N.
[Timperley, in his _Dictionary of Printing_, has the following note respecting them: "May 27, 1681. The Sweet-singers of the city of Edinburgh renounce the _printed_ Bible at the Canongate tolbooth, and all unchaste thoughts, words, and actions, and burn all story books, ballads, romances, &c."]
"_Philip Quarll._"--Did a Mr. Bicknell write _Philip Quarll_? Was he the author of any other books? Is there a recent edition of _Philip Quarll_? and, if not, why not?
E. C. R.
Sunderland.
[Lowndes states that this work has been "frequently reprinted." The only editions known to us are the first in 1727, and the one published in a series by Harrison and Co. in 1731. The editor's initials are P. L.]
_Dedication of Middleton Church._--What is the dedication of the little church at Middleton, Essex (near Sudbury, Suffolk)? I cannot find it in the _Liber Regis_, in Wright's _Essex_, nor in Lewis's _Topographical Dictionary_.
W. SPARROW SIMPSON.
[The indefatigable Newcourt, in his _Repertorium_, vol. ii. p. 418., was unable to give the dedication, and has left a blank for it to be supplied by some future antiquary.]
_Lunatic Asylum benefited by Dean Swift._--Which of the lunatic asylums benefited by the "will" of Dean Swift; either founded or endowed by the bulk of his property?--Vide _Memoirs_.
SAMPSON LOW, Jun.
169. Fleet Street.
[St. Patrick's, or Swift's Hospital, for the reception of lunatics and idiots, situated near Dr. Steevens's Hospital, adjoining to James Street, Dublin. It was opened in 1757. For some account of it see Scott's "Memoir of Dean Swift," _Works_, vol. i. pp. 438. 527.]
Replies.
ST. CHRISTOPHER.
(Vol. v., p. 295.)
Some years ago I remember meeting with the following explanation of the beautiful legend of St. Christopher, and unfortunately forgot to take a _Note_ of it. It recurred to my mind on lately reading Mr. Talbot's work on English etymologies, the writer of which appears to take a similar view of the allegorical meaning.
Part of the legend is founded on the meaning of the Greek Χριστοφερων, coupled with a circumstance in the original legend, which is of German origin, and is an allegorizing of our blessed Lord's bearing the sins of the world, and _offering_ himself up on the altar of the cross. In a Latin document of A.D. 1423, the name is abbreviated into _X'poferus_; in an English one of the same date it is spelt _Christopfore_; and in French, _Christopfre_. _Christopfer_ signifies _Christ's sacrifice_: that is, the sacrifice of the cross continually offered up in the sacrament of the altar, or the mass, the _messopfer_, so named from the German _opfer_, a sacrifice; Welsh _offeiriad_, a priest; _offrwm_, a sacrifice; _offeren_, the mass; Irish, _oifrionn_, or _aifrionn_.
The perfection of our blessed Lord's humanity, His resistance of evil, and mighty strength displayed in bearing the sins of the universe, are shadowed out in the great stature and vast strength of the giant Christopher. According to the legend, when he had succeeded in reaching the shore, and had set down his burden, he said: "Chylde, thou hast put me in grete peryll, thou wayest alle most as I had had the world upon me; I might bere no greater burden;" and the child answered, "Christopher, marvel thou nothing, for thou hast not only borne all the world upon thee, but its sins likewise."
Mr. Talbot says, the name Christopher, _Christoffer_, may have been given to children born on Good Friday, the day of the Great Sacrifice, as those born on Christmas, Easter, and All Saints were named Pascal, Noel, Toussaint.
JARLTZBERG.
"REHETOUR" AND "MOKE," TWO OBSCURE WORDS USED BY WYCKLYFFE, A.D. 1384.
(Vol. i., pp. 155. 278.)
I. REHETOUR.
(See the _Three Treatises_, published by Dr. Todd, Dublin, 1851. Text, pages xxv, xxvi and lxv; Note on Rehetours, p. clxxi-ii.)
It is certain that Monastery and Minster were originally one word in Latin; it is generally believed that Rhythm and Rhyme were one in Greek; and it is possible that _Rehetour_ and _Caterer_ had one prototype in Spanish: of this last pair only one survived; it is naturally that which, by being equal to the other in sense, excels it in harmony with the English tongue.
Convinced that the office assigned to the _Rehetours_ in the lordly household could not have been filled by any such character as ascribed to the _Rehâteur_, _Reheater_, or _Rehaiteur_; convinced, moreover, that the Scottish _Rehator_, _Rehatoure_, and the English _Rehetour_ must be either both restored to their common kindred, or else consigned to common oblivion, I chose the former alternative; and after a careful inquest held on these twin foundlings, together with _Rehete_, _Reheting_, two other departed strangers of the same age, I venture to pronounce the following verdict:--
1. A native of Spain, _Regatero_ (see Stephen's _Spanish Dictionary_, 1726, and all that is said about _Regaton_ in the _Diccionario_ of the Academy, Madrid, 1737, folio), travelling in Great Britain, changed to _Rehetour_, _Rehator_, &c.
2. By trade a retailer of provisions, huckster, or purveyor, his character strongly partook of the nature of his commodities, so as to become tainted; this appears from the quotations in Jamieson's _Etym. Dictionary_, and is attested by the Spanish proverb, _Ni compres de Regaton, ni te descuides en meson_: Wycklyffe in all three passages expresses his apprehension of "harm." The French _regrattier_ from _gratter_ (to scratch, scrape), and _Regatero_, _Regaton_, from _gato_ (a cat), whether they be, or be not, truly thus derived, bear equally marks of a contemptible impression.
3. In Wycklyffe's simile the _Rehetours_ take care of the bodily, the ecclesiastics of the spiritual food, the Pope being the steward of the household. The Scottish _Rehatour_ we find no longer as an ordinary plain dealer, but in a state of depravity, so as to be a mere byeword, even in the sense of blackguard, which word itself, if we believe Nares (see his _Glossary_) that it owes its existence to those menials of the court, cannot have been barely "a jocular name," but their disposition must have corresponded to their black exterior, otherwise the joke could not have remained a lasting stigma. I believe, however, the word _blackguard_, by inserting the _l_, merely simulates a vernacular origin, it being properly _Beguards_ (see Boiste, _Dictionnaire Universel_), from _Beghardus_ (see _Mediæval Glossaries_), once a German participle _bek[=a]rt_ (now _bekehrt_), _converted_, applied to the Frater _conversus_, secular begging monks who, increasing in number and misdeeds, soon became universally notorious, and ultimately (mixed up with impostors who assumed their dress) would serve in any capacity rather than the honest and irreproachable.
4. If _Caterer_ proceeded from the Spanish, it arrived thus--_Recatero_--_Recaterer_--_Caterer_; the _c_ for _g_ being either the natural result from the accent which the majority of speakers withdrew from the latter syllable of the word, or is accounted for by "_Recatear lo mismo que regatear_:" the derivation from _re_ and _cautus_, as given by Covarrubias, likewise protects the _c_.
5. It is possible that the primitive root _Kat_ or _Gat_, in the sense of hollow, hole, cavity, cave, &c., whence _Gate_, _Cot_, _Cottage_, _Cattegat_ (Sinus Codanus), probably also _Regatta_, was the first element of both the Spanish and the English term; the spot or situation where the eatables were originally exposed for sale thus causing them first to be called _cates_ (a plural noun like wages), then the singular _cate_, &c., the noun of agent having most probably preceded the verb _cater_, which has come last. A similar derivation is certain with regard to _huckster_, which, besides _huckeback_, joins the Swedish _hökare_, German _Höker_, &c., from the bending, crooked, or squatting position in some brook or crook or corner.
6. The verb _Rehete_ is aptly derived by Jamieson from _Rehaiter_; both are extinct, yet their kindred _heiter_ (formerly _haiter_), with its two verbs _erheitern_ and _aufheitern_, are still in full vigour among the Germans, to whom they afford serenity of mind, mood, and weather. The French compound word for wishing, _souhaiter_, refers its verb _haiter_ to the Swedish _heta_, German _heissen_, Anglo-Saxon _hetan_, as in _Ulf het aræran cyrice_, "ULF bid rear the church" (see Latham, _Engl. Lang._ 1850, p. 99.): now if also from the _haiter_ of that compound we may suppose a derivative _Rehaiter_, or at least one of the kind to have served Chaucer in his participle _Reheting_, which has been the puzzle of his commentators in the following passage from _Troilus_ (III. line 350.):
"And all the reheting of his sikes (sighs) sore, At ones fled, he felt 'hem no more;"
we may easily understand thereby that, as it were, a rebidding, an importunate insisting upon, the repetition of his sighs, ceased and were at an end; so that in the time of Edward III. a person complaining of a troublesome cough, headache, &c., might call it a reheting cough, &c.
II. MOKE.
(See the said _Three Treatises_, pages cxxxvii, and Notes, pages ccxx. ccxxiii-iv.)