"EXPERTO CREDE" (7th S. ii. 368, 433).-It is almost a primary rule with readers of 'N. & Q.' to require chapter and verse where possible, and I marvel that such a veteran note-taker as MR. SALA should be content to simply ascribe the phrase "Experto crede Roberto" to dear old Democritus Junior. May I supply the omission? The passage in which the phrase occurs is at p. 6 of the address of Democritus to the reader in my Burton's " Anatomie' (Oxford, 1632), and runs thus:

" Concerning my selfe, I can peradventure affirme with Marius in Salust, that which others heare or read of, I felt and practised my selfe, they get their knowledge by Bookes, I mine by melancholizing, Experto

crede Roberto."""

"

JAMES HOOPER.

Oak Cottage, Streatham Place, S.W. Experto credite" occurs in Vergil's 'Eneid,' xi. 283, and Ovid's 'Ars Amantis,' iii. 511; "Crede in Silius Italicus, Punica,' vii. 395. experto Antonius de Arena (died 1544) wrote "Experto crede Roberto," Robertus standing for a plain man who had no title to exceptional wisdom. Arena gave the phrase currency in France, Italy, and Germany, many Germans using Ruperto, with an allusion to Knecht Rupert, for Roberto. The phrase is an intentional travesty.

C. W. ERNST.

298, Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, Mass., U.S.

PARISH REGISTERS (7th S. ii. 368, 431).-I would suggest to MR. ELLIS that he should procure Dr. Geo. W. Marshall's printed copy of the register of Perlethorpe, Notts., 1528-1813, the proof of which I saw last week. It is an admirable specimen of what a printed copy should be-page for page, line for line, letter for letter, with notes

CUSTOMS CONNECTED WITH THE PLAGUE (7th S. ii. 229, 374).-Will you allow me to note a further discovery in connexion with the bearing of rods or wands in the time of plague. It is a much earlier instance than either of those before noted. On April 28, 1518, during the prevalence of the sweating sickness in England, the Dean of the Chapel Royal, John Clerk, D.D., wrote to Wolsey from Woodstock as follows:

"Master More has certified the King from Oxford, that three children are dead of the sickness, but none others. He has charged the mayor and the commissary in the King's name, that the inhabitants of those houses that be and shall be infected, shall keep in, put out wispes, and bear white rods, according as your grace devised for Londoners" (see Calendars of State Papers of Hen. VIII.).

Clearly the custom was an ancient one, and I should be very glad if any of your readers would help me to trace it to its source. On what date were Wolsey's orders to the Londoners issued? H. R. PLOMER.

In 1573 the plague was raging in the town of Southampton, and recourse was had to the expedient of painting a cross on the house doors of infected persons; such persons were obliged to carry white rods in their hands "to knowe the syke from the whole "; and the town employed six men and women as keepers and bearers" of the sick people, at one shilling per week each. See Davies's History of Southampton,' 1883, p. 480. J. S. ATTWOOD.

Exeter.

SUICIDE OF ANIMALS (6th S. xi. 227, 354; xii. 295, 454; 7th S. i. 59, 112, 155, 178).-I am disin so-called "animals," for one reason, among others, because I think if they were capable of entertaining the idea they would take advantage of it so often, to be rid of the miseries the human animal inflicts on them, that the present doubt would not exist. Would not half the cab-horses crawl into the Thames, and would not high-spirited mongrels devise means of being beforehand with the policeman's truncheon? Nevertheless, I have just been credibly informed of an authentic instance, which has so much more appearance of a deliberate act of the kind than any I have met

inclined to believe in deliberate intention of suicide

before, that I transmit the account as it was told to me. A gentleman with whom I had a slight acquaintance, residing not many doors from me, went last winter to the South of France on a visit to relations. He was out of health, certainly, but it was quite expected that the change of climate would restore him. His "faithful dog" did not "bear him company," but remained with his wife and friends. The hopes of his recovery proved fallacious, and when the news of his death came it was an unexpected grief. The dog seemed fully to understand the nature of the bereavement, and shared the grief of the family to such an overwhelming extent that one day it went to an upper window and jumped out, killing itself in a very distressing way. I may add the dog was a small terrier.

R. H. BUSK.

THE IMP OF LINCOLN (7th S. ii. 308,416).—The imp of Lincoln reminds me of a small figure in stone representing his Satanic Majesty which I saw some years ago on the roof of the church at Thorpe Malsor, in Northamptonshire, which had then been recently restored; and I have been furnished with the following information concerning it, which may perhaps interest some of your readers :

"This funny monster in stone on Thorpe Malsor Church is by no means a legendary hero or ancient inhabitant, but altogether a modern intruder, carved for some other place and rejected, whereupon the restorer of the church considerately found a home for it in a secluded nook on the roof, close to the window at the top of the turret staircase, leading to a small chamber over

the south porch. At the corners of the inside roof of this staircase are four guardian angels carved in stone, supposed to be keeping at a proper distance his Satanic Majesty, who is in an attitude ready to jump in and lend his attributes of a pig and a monkey to assist the priest when acting the part of confessor in the little room close by. The chamber is a restoration, after having been blocked up for ages, and is said to have been originally intended for the accommodation of the sexton, who occasionally had to toll the bell at night and always for matins. The little imp's arrival was supposed to bring mischief, as the people of Thorpe said, 'No good can come to us while that thing is there,' and unfortunately, being hidden out of sight, it cannot form a target for the boys to throw their stones at."

HENRY DRake.

of Knox,' and Calderwood's History of the Kirk of Scotland.' The original authority is James Melville's 'Diary' (Bannatyne Club), p. 47, and the exact words are "that he nather fearit nor flatterit anie fleshe." James Melville possibly had the anecdote from his uncle Andrew, or it may have obtained general currency among_the_friends of Knox. T. F. H.

BEAVER OR BEVER (7th S. ii. 306, 454, 514).This word is pronounced in Bedfordshire bavers, a being sounded as in quaver. It is a word of every day occurrence, meaning an intermediate meal, not (as apparently at Eton) between dinner and supper, but between breakfast and dinner, It will be interesting if it usually about 11 A.M. can be made clear that beverage is connected with this word. Beverage is, however, usually derived from bibere, to drink; and bavers in the Midland Counties includes eating as well.

G. F. W. M.

There can be little doubt, I think, that this word=boire, Old French bevre, boivre, and so is much the same thing as beverage, which comes from bibere, as Prof. Skeat's 'Dictionary' explains. Even when bevers mean victuals as well as drink, we must recollect that the greater includes the less, and that, as Falstaff had but little bread to his sack, so beer is the eponymus of the Briton's nuncheon. A. J. M.

'NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE' (7th S. ii. 388).— With all deference to URBAN, it can hardly be said that this magazine started in 1821. The first volume appeared in 1814, and was styled the New Monthly Magazine and Universal Register. In the fifteenth volume, which appeared in 1821, a slight change of title was made, by the substitution of the words "Literary Journal" for "Universal Register." According to Cyrus Redding's notice of Talfourd in vol. c. of the New Monthly Magazine, pp. 407-415,

"Campbell became editor of the New Monthly. In the small print which made every third volume, Talfourd regularly supplied the drama for ten consecutive years. His contributions to the first part of the new series of the magazine were few."-P. 410.

On the next page Redding states that
"besides his hundred and twenty dramatic articles,
Talfourd wrote numerous reviews in the large print."
G. F. R. B.

his History of his own Time,' says that the Earl of Argyll, being visited by Mr. Charteris whilst he was finishing his dinner on the day of his execution, said to him, pleasantly, "Sero venientibus

JOKES ON DEATH (7th S. ii. 404).—Burnet, in

CONSTANCE RUSSELL.

Swallowfield Park, Reading.

SOCIAL POSITION OF THE CLERGY IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY (7th S. ii. 241, 313, 377). -There can, I conceive, be little doubt but that Macaulay had in his mind's eye the well-known 'Directions to Servants' by Dean Swift. In those "To the Waiting Maid" he advises (in a certain contingency), "You must take up with the chaplain." The passage is too gross for the chaste columns of N. & Q.' AS HERMENTRUDE mentions, the social position of ladies' maids was then higher than now. Indeed, so recently as the first quarter of the present century they are styled "gentlewomen " in works of fiction. C. S. K.

Miscellaneous.

By J. W.

NOTES ON BOOKS, &o. Cavalier Lyrics: For Church and Crown. Ebsworth, M.A., F.S.A. (Privately printed.) So antiquarian in feeling, in character, and in expression are these Cavalier lyrics of our old contributor the Rev. J. W. Ebsworth, that the rule prohibiting' N. & Q.' from dealing with modern verse may now for once be set on one side. If ever there was a soul born a couple of centuries too late it is that of the Vicar of Molash. To the general reader he is known by his admirable service to letters in reprinting in a handsome form the Drolleries' of the Restoration period and by his constant, loyal, zealous, and wholly gratuitous labours in editing for the Ballad Society the precious series of Bagford and Roxburghe ballads. A smaller circle recognizes him as the author of 'Karl's Legacy,' published in two volumes in 1868, and of various spirited poems written on occasional subjects. In these various books we are shown a man whose nature is "subdued "

To that it works in, like the dyer's hand, It is not a mere question of admiration and enthusiasm for the brave gentlemen who cast in their lot with the Stuart kings, melted their plate into money, armed their servants into companies, and gave up their estates and their lives, accepting ungrudgingly penury, exile, and death. Into the very soul of these men Mr. Ebsworth enters, leading, as it were, their lives, warmed by their loves, flushed with their hatreds, inspired by their scorns. The name of "crop-ear'd Puritan" is with him a phrase of burning significance, the health of King Charles is drunk by him unbonnetted and kneeling, with the resolution of enthusiasm and the fervency of prayer. For the Puritans of to-day, for those who would have no more cakes and ale, would take away from our country the name of Merry England, and substitute sour visages for happy faces, Mr. Ebsworth has unqualified contempt. It is, however, an old-world scorn. He is a not ungenerous foe. For "Old Noll," who "plays the right card, tho' he holds the wrong suit," he has an enforced admiration; and after the restoration of monarchy he

calls on Milton, who has fallen on "evil days" and
"evil tongues," and is "in darkness and with dangers
compass'd round," and shakes him by the hand.
Part I. deals with the period before the Restora-
tion. The first lyric of combat is sung in June,
1639, by a trooper of Sir John Suckling's regiment after
their dispersal by the Scots; a second is a wail over the
fate of Strafford. Then, after one or two others, is a
spirited song on the raising of the royal standard at
Nottingham. This is followed by Told in the Twilight,'
a love-ballad sung before Edgehill. So by' Prince Rupert's
Last Charge,''Left on the Battle-field, Naseby,' VæVic-
tis; Philiphaugh,' 'Short Shrift,' A Cavalier's Grave,'
&c., we arrive at The Thirty-first of January, 1648/9,'
a supremely touching poem, in which a girl whose
brothers have died in the war hesitates how to break to
her ruined father the news of the death of Charles.
picture of the Restoration Court, with poems to La Belle
Part II. opens out a brighter vista. We have now a
Stewart, glimpses of Nell Gwynne, Milton, &c.; but
with graver episodes, such as the murder of Archbishop
Sharp, and so on, until the true Cavalier, "Semper
Fidelis," once more accepts exile after the flight of
James II.-

From trickster Orange and those pliant knaves
Whom he had bribed to treachery accurat.

The volume thus constitutes a species of poetical and quasi-dramatic chronicle of fifty years of English history. It is written throughout with spirit and fervour, is printed as an édition de luxe, and is illustrated by designs reproduced by the author from the old ballads he has edited and from other sources. In its way this attractive volume, of which a very limited edition is imprinted, is, and is likely to remain, unique. Three Norfolk Armories. A Transcript made in 1753 of a MS. by Anthony Norris, Esq., of Barton Turf. Edited by Walter Rye. (Privately printed.) THIS is an interesting little volume on a special subject by one who is well known as a specialist on East Anglian heraldry and genealogy. The frequent references to monuments, painted glass, &c., as authority for the compiler of these armories did not mention the places older coats, can only cause regret in our minds that the where the monuments were then existing. It is pro

bable that we should have a sad tale to tell of destruc

tion, whether of marble, or brass, or of storied window.

Norfolk Armories' is that of Lymsey of Gunton, occurAmong the rarer names which we notice in Mr. Rye's ring in his Codex C, and as to which the editor queries "Lynisey?" The name may have been sometimes so written, but the more ordinary forms are Limesie and Lymesie, and it is, as the late Earl of Crawford showed good reason for believing, the original form of the name of the "lightsome Lindsays" of Scottish history. Other famous names from the same history appear on Mr. Rye's pages, such as Kirkpatrick, Montgomery, &c. Old English local patronymics, such as Atte Cherche, Atwood, occur, and names such as Cressy, Everingham, Rydell, to which attention has from time to time been drawn by us. We hope that Mr. Rye will be encouraged to continue his good work, and print "all the Norfolk armorial MSS.," as he suggests in his prefatory note. Edgar Allan Poe: his Life, Letters, and Opinions. By John H. Ingram. (Allen & Co.)

In a convenient and handsome volume, suitable in all respects for the shelves, is now issued Mr. Ingram's elaborate and successful biography of Poe. The service Mr. Ingram has rendered to the poet has long won recognition. In this biography the vindication of Poe is complete. It is pleasant to find that a new edition has

been speedily required, and certain that its appearance in a form at once legible and portable will commend it to a largely increased circle of readers.

The Wisdom of Edmund Burke: Extracts from his Speeches and Writings. Selected and Arranged by Edward Alloway Pankhurst. (Murray.) To the general reader, to whom it may be supposed the time or the disposition to read Edmund Burke will be wanting, this series of well-arranged extracts will bring a knowledge of one of the most profound thinkers of Eng. land. All that need be advanced in favour of the book is urged in the assertion that it is well named.

London Rambles "en Zigzag " with Charles Dickens. By Robert Allbut. (Drewett.)

A NEW and cheap edition of a work which to a visitor to London adds greatly to the attraction of a walk through familiar thoroughfares and adjacent by-ways, has been issued by Mr. Drewett, with reproductions of some of his illustrations of old London.

Book-Lore. Vol. IV.-June to November, 1886. (Stock.) THE latest volume of Book-Lore is disappointing. The articles, as a rule, are short and of no great importance. Some of them are extracted from well-known sources, and the verse is poorer in quality than the prose. From this condemnation the article by Mr. John Davies on The Adarno of Giovanni Soranze' евсарев. It would surely be better to have more signed articles.

The New Peerage, by G. E. C. (in the Genealogist, N.S., vol. ii.), continues its useful and interesting course, and deserves more than the few words in which we must compress our sense of gratitude to its editor. The portion included within the volume of the Genealogist for 1885 contains titles of great historic interest in the peerages of the three kingdoms, and involves the discussion of points of no slight difficulty in genealogy and peerage law. G. E. C.'s hope that the " full and lucid" history of the great Anglo-Norman house of De Albini, which, as he truly says, "has yet to be written," may be undertaken by Mr. Chester Waters, commands our entire sympathy. We observe that, under Arundel, G. E. C. speaks of the alternative use of the name of De Arundel by the Fitzalans as affording a singular instance of the adoption of the name of the dignity as a surname. This may be true of the English, but it would certainly not be true of the Scottish, peerage. The very same portion of G. E. C.'s work contains the title of Athol, the earliest surname of whose bearers known to us was De Atholia. So we have Lennox, Menteith, Mar, and others of the seven earldoms, giving name as well as title to the ancient Celtic houses which held those earldoms.

Speaking generally, we may say that the notes by the learned editor are full of literary and bibliographical details, as well as of points of interest, raised by way of criticism or suggestion, as to the creation and devolution of titles. We shall look forward with interest to the

next instalment of the 'New Peerage,' in the Genealogist

for 1886.

Le Livre opens with a very interesting paper on 'Des Bibliothèques au Point de Vue de l'Ameublement,' with many designs of very handsome bookcases designed for the luxurious collector. Following this comes 'An Anonymous Work of Balzac.' The Chronique du Livre' and a full-page engraving after Titian make up the Bibliographie Ancienne." The more modern portion commences with an account of 'Livres d'Etrenne.'

MESSRS. CROSBY LOCKWOOD & Co. have issued an elementary French grammar and reader by Dr. V. de Fivas, M.A., which is simple, well arranged, and has a good Vocabulary.

IN Cassell's "National Library" has been included a good, well printed, and very cheap reprint of A Christmas Carol' and 'The Chimes,' by Charles Dickens,

THE latest book catalogue of Mr. U. Maggs, of Church Street, Paddington, contains, in addition to many works, topographical and other, Mr. Solly's set of N. & Q.,' with the rare early indexes.

AT the meeting of the Royal Society of Literature, on December 19, Dr. Douglas Lithgow, F.S.A., read an interesting paper on Herrick, to whom he assigned the first place, as a strictly lyrical poet, between the period of Henry V. and a century ago; and the Foreign Secretary, Mr. C. H. E. Carmichael, M.A., read the graphic in memoriam to the late Dr. Ingleby, contributed by Dr. H. Howard Furness to the October number of Shakespeariana.

Notices to Correspondents.

We must call special attention to the following notices: ON all communications must be written the name and address of the sender, not necessarily for publication, but as a guarantee of good faith.

WE cannot undertake to answer queries privately. To secure insertion of communications correspondents must observe the following rule. Let each note, query, or reply be written on a separate slip of paper, with the signature of the writer and such address as he wishes to appear. Correspondents who repeat queries are requested to head the second communication "Duplicate."

SELRUISSEAU ("Be the day weary, be the day long," &c.). These lines, apparently proverbial, occur in many places, and are given in different forms. In John Heywood's 'Dialogue concerning English Proverbs,' the form is

Yet is he sure, be the daie neuer so long, Euermore at laste they ring to euensong. It is given differently in Hawes's Pastime of Pleasure,' and differently again in Ray's 'Proverbs.' There is no authoritative version.

SAMUEL EVANS, of Columbia, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, U.S., wishes to correspond with descendants of Barnabas Hughes, who in 1748 or 1749 quitted Donegal for Pennsylvania, and of his wife Elizabeth, née Waters.

JAMES TAIT ("A Centenarian in the Far North ").We are sorry for the fruitless trouble you have taken. It would have been spared you had you seen our notice that the question of centenarianism was closed, and would not be reopened.

Company,' and 7th S. i. 9, 52, under Cogers' Hall.' H. A. S.-See 3rd S. vii. 496, under 'Coachmakers' JOHN NEWNHAM.-Anticipated. See 6th S. xii. 477. ERRATUM.-P. 514, col. 1, 1. 16 from bottom, for "W. C. B.'s query read C. B.'s query.

NOTICE.

THE fourth volume of Mr. Hamilton's Parodies has

to this rule we can make no exception.