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judging, that, notwithstanding the many childish things it contains, the Acta Sanctorum is one of the most valuable historical collections in the world, yet how many of us know who were its editors? To those few who can call the names of Bollandus, Henschenius, and the rest of them, to mind, it is to be feared the sounds connote names only, not men who lived, and whose hard-working lives are worth remembering. The Centuriatores

QUERIES:-Craven of Spersholt Baronetcy, 52— - Joseph
Addison- Baldwin's Plans of a Roman Temple The Magdeburgenses have fared even worse than the

Brickdust Man Alexander Brodie-"Castrum Rothomagi' Christmas Carol-The Introduction of Culinary Vegetables into England - Infantry: "Il Penseroso" Lots - Manuscript Treatise on Chronology The Nativity and Massacre of the Innocents in Waxwork-Old Harry and Old Nick MS. Pedigrees St. Peter's Chair-Philosophy of Notation-James Smith - Height of our Chief Towns above Sea-level-"Weep not for the Dead," 53.

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QUERIES WITH ANSWERS:-Gillray's "French Invasion"
Gravelot Portrait for Identification - Cuddy Banks
The "Argenis," &c. of Barclay-Cohorts in Britain —
Bull and Mouth- Latin Quotation, 56.
REPLIES:-Dorchester, co. Oxford, 57- The Skyrack Oak,
58 Charles I. at Oxford, 59-Cinque Port Seals, Tb.-
Aggas's Map of London-Duke of Roxburghe Slang

Phrases: Feeder: Tick-Latin Roots-David GarrickGreyhound-Cincindelæ-A Philosophic Brute - Corsie, Corsey-French King's Badge and Motto Gab Masonry-Espec-Grandy Needles-German-English Dictionary Lunar Influence Bishop Geddes, &c., 60. Notes on Books &c.

Notes.

LAURENCE BEYERLINCK.

The contempt with which many people think it becomes them to speak of those laborious persons who have compiled books of reference is at once amusing and painful. It is very funny to hear a man who would consider he had done a hard day's work if he had made a good index to a single number of Notes and Queries, sneer at "mere compilers" like Dodsworth or Dufresne, but it is sorrowful to remember that this vulgar prejudice has damped the ardour of many who otherwise might have done good service. Even in these days of archeological fervour it requires some amount of courage for a man to devote himself to any kind of historical investigation that is incapable of picturesque treatment, or that cannot be bent so as to seem to bear upon some of the political or religious controversies that fill our newspapers. How often has one heard it said of some laborious student, "Yes, his work is all very well, but why in the world does a man of his abilities waste his time on such trivial matters? Why does he not write something that will tell upon the age in which he lives? good answer might be given to such silly talk, but courtesy rather requires silence. Such thoughts as these naturally come into our heads when we use the really great works of men whose names are almost unknown except to literary antiquaries. It will be admitted by every one who is capable of

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men of the Acta. The Roman Catholic compilers are sometimes quoted by their names, and we are thereby compelled to remember that their books were not the result of machinery; but the Protestant historians have been buried beneath a noun of multitude, and are almost entirely forgotten even by the few who consult their books. Biographical dictionaries are not quite fair tests of literary fame, because they have mostly been compiled by men who had some sympathy with letters, and then they have also had Anthony A'Wood, Bayle (in English too) and Nichols to steal from; but even taking such books as a test, in how many of them shall we find notices of some of our most devoted workmen? You may generally look in vain for Thomas Taylor, Roger Dodsworth, Thomas Madox, or Thomas Hearne. In their places you have Cagliostro the Sicilian adventurer, Mesmer the German quack, perhaps even O'Brien the Irish giant, Daniel Lambert, and the living skeleton. Doubtless the frauds and follies of the world should not pass without record. The man who lived without any flesh at all, and the man who weighed fifty stone, if they did exist as reported, were certainly interesting anthropological studies; but we would rather forget them than the men who have done so much to preserve or to make known our history.

There are some of these industrious compilers that many of us who are well skilled in things antiquarian have never even heard of. A few years ago a mere accident threw in the writer's way a copy of a book called –

"Magnum Theatrum vitæ humanæ; hoc est Rerum Divinarum Humanarumque Syntagma Catholicum, Philosophicum, Historicum, Dogmaticum, Alphabetica (serie Polyanther Vniversalis instar, in tomos octo digestum, Auctore Laurentio Beyerlinck, 1678."

I had never heard of the book before. It was big-in eight large folios and had a capital index: so, without knowing anything whatever about it or its author further than what the titlepage told me, I purchased, and began diligently to examine it. This was not a pleasant matter at first, for the volumes had slept for upwards of fifty years in a German garret, and were, on their outsides, as filthy as may be. They were, however, bound in oak boards, clad in good stamped pigskin, so that I could wash them as easily and safely as a groom does a dirty saddle.

None of the bibliographical books I had within reach gave me any information about Laurence Beyerlinck; no book that I could stumble upon, except Isla's History of Friar Gerund de Campazas,* even mentioned him. On examination I found the book to be really a vast cyclopædia of universal knowledge, or what passed for such in the seventeenth century. The subjects are arranged alphabetically, and there is an index filling the whole of the eighth volume. There is scarcely anything, human or divine, known two hundred years ago, concerning which one may not find some curious information in its pages. If in some matters we go away without adding to our store of facts, we may, if we like, still have a good laugh over master Laurence's " abject" superstitions-for he believed, as most decent, Godfearing men in those days did, in witches and warlocks, omens, presentiments, strangely featured devils, and miraculously contorted births, and thought, as some people have done since that

"The sounds on the earth, the signs in the sky, The tempest below, and the whirlwind on high," were portents of future judgments.

The book is seldom met with in England. I have never seen it out of my own house but three times. There are copies of it in the British Museum and Bodleian libraries, and I once saw one in the shop of a bookseller who deals largely in old continental theology.

The following particulars will therefore interest some of your readers. Although the later editions of this compilation have Beyerlinck's name only on the title-page, he was not the sole, or indeed the first author.

Conrad Wolffhart, or Lycosthenes, as he chose to translate himself, who was the son of Theobald Wolffhart by his wife Elizabeth, the sister of Conrad Kürschner, or Pellican, as he persuaded people to call him, was born March 8, 1518, at Ruffach in Alsace. He died at St. Leonard on March 25, 1567, and is buried in the church there. He was a well-known literary man in the sixteenth century, author, amongst other things, of that wonderful collection of strange stories called Prodigiorum et Ostentorum Chronicon, published at Baselin 1557. This person laid the foundation of the Magnum Theatrum by collecting the materials from which his wife's son by her first marriage compiled the first edition.† This son-in-law was Theodore Zwinger, the physician, born Au

* Historia del famoso predicador Fray Gerundio de Campazas. Madrid. 1804. 8vo. Lib. II. c. viii. sec. xii. p. 321. English Translation, 2 vols. 8vo. Dublin, 1772, vol. i. p. 267. The English version reflects the original in a very mutilated form. There is an article on this work in the Retrospective Rev., vol. vi. p. 239.

t Biog. Universelle, last ed., sub. nom. Lycosthenes"; Niceron's Mémoires, 1785, vol. xxxi. p. 339, where his epitaph is given.

gust 3, 1533. His mother was a sister of the noted printer Jean Oporin; her first husband was Leonard Zwinger, "pelletier ou corroyeur," originally of Bischof-Zell in the Turgow. Although a trader, he came of a good old family. Several of his ancestors had held important trusts, and his father had received letters of nobility from the Emperor Maximilian I. He was the author of many other works, as well as of this great compilation. The first edition of the Theatrum appeared in 1565, the second in 1571; other issues took place in 1586, 1596, and 1604.

Laurence Beyerlinck was the son of Adrian Beyerlinck, an apothecary, and his wife Catherina van Eyck. The family were of Berg-op-Zoom, but Laurence was born at Antwerp in 1578. In early life he studied under the Jesuits at Louvain. He afterwards became professor of poetry and rhetoric in the College of Vaulx. (Collegium Vaulxianum, vulgo Gandense). We are informed by Franc. Swertius, who was his friend, "mihi familiarissimus," that he died June 22, 1627.† His epitaph, as given in the edition of the Magnum Theatrum, published on 1678, says that his The version of death took place on June 21. which I here send a transcript, gives June 7 as the true date.

He was buried beside his parents in the chapel of St. Thomas in Antwerp Cathedral. If the monument still exists, perhaps some reader of "N. & Q." will point out if there be any mistake It differs in some in the following inscription. other particulars, as well as the date, from the one in the Theatrum:

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"LAURENTIUS BEYERLINCK,
Antverp. natus, litterisque excultus,
Lovanii Philosophiam & Theol. hausit.
Ad Seminarii curam huc evocatus,
Præfuit & fecit bene.

Hujus Edis Canonicus, & Librorum
Censor, Districtûs primùm,
Dein Urbis Archipresbyter,
Necnon S. R. E. Prothonotarius,
Tot muniis præclarè obitis,
Concionibus, scriptis sacris & prophanis,
Vitæ innocentiâ atque in Deum pietate,
Apud cives & exteros clarus,
Obiit 7 Junii, M.D.C.XXVII.
Etatis XLIX.

His motto was, Currite, ut comprehendatis. § The following list of Beyerlinck's writings is as complete as I can make it. It has been compiled after an examination of the books quoted above, the life in the first volume of the Theatrum, edit. 1678, and the catalogues of the library of the

*Nouvelle Biog. Générale and Biog. Univ. sub. nom. † Athena Belgica, 1628, p. 510.

Joh. Franc. Foppens, Bibliotheca Belgica. Bruxelles, 2 vols. 4to, vol. ii. p. 804.

§ Pauli Freheri Theatrum virorum Eruditione clariorum, fol. 1688, vol. i. p. 437.

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*Magnum Theatrum Vita Humanæ.... 1631. Fol. Tom. vii.

Edit. Lugdun. 1678. Fol. Tom. viii.

Edit. Venetiis, Venet. 1707. Fol. Tom. viii. *Responsa Catholica ad quæsita obvia_prætensæ Religionis reformatæ. 1609, 1617. 16mo. [Idiomate vernaculo.]

*Lives of the three Apostles of Antwerp, St. Eligius, St. Willibrord, and St. Norbert. 4to. In Flemish. *Conciones selectæ. 1627.

Martyrologium Sanctarum virginum quæ in hoc sæculo ob sanctam fidem Martyres obierunt breuiter illustratum." [Antwerp. 1615.] fol.

....

versibus

In this last there are twenty-four engravings by Thomas de Leu, with two Latin lines under each plate by Laurence Beyerlinck. K. P. D. E.

THE ALLITERATIVE ROMANCES OF

ALEXANDER.

A book entitled The Alliterative Romance of Alexander was published by the Roxburghe Club, 1849, edited by Mr. Stevenson. Perhaps the title should rather have used the plural term Romances. The facts are these. There are four fragments of alliterative verse extant in MS. upon the subject of Alexander, which may be distinguished thus. A. A fragment about Alexander's infancy, MS. Greaves 60. This is almost certainly the oldest, and as to the truth of Sir F. Madden's conjecture, that it was written by the author of William and the Werwolf, there can be no doubt. It is now being edited by myself for the Early English Text Society as an appendix to the Werwolf, in order that one glossary may serve for both poems, as it easily may.

1400 or 1390; and it may be earlier. The language of this poem bears some resemblance to that of fragment A, but there is hardly sufficient resemblance to show that they are by the same author. Supposing, for a moment, that they are so, the poem of which they are fragments would seem to have been of enormous length, the missing central portion being very considerable. This MS. is printed at length in Mr. Stevenson's edition.

C. A fragment about Alexander's infancy 44; and D. a portion of the same poem, in MS. and warlike exploits, preserved in MS. Ashmole Dublin D. 4. 12, beginning at a later place, and ending at an earlier one. The date of the Ashmole MS. can hardly be earlier than A.D. 1450, and Mr. Stevenson thinks (which seems probable enough) that the date of the composition of the poem is at about the same period. This last fragment bears traces of a northern dialect; the former two of a western. It is printed at length in Mr. Stevenson's edition, from the Ashmole MS.

What is the conclusion? It would seem to be that we have here three distinct romances by three hands. C is certainly different from A and B, and later than both of them. A and B are possibly about the same date, and have some resemblance; but the more they are compared, the more unlike they appear-a result curiously at variance with that obtained by comparing fragment A with the Werwolf. Considering the popularity of the subject, the result is not surprising. There are other copies in old English, besides these in alliterative verse. See The Buik of the most noble and vailzeand Conquerour Alexander the Great, printed at Edinburgh, 1580; reprinted by the Bannatyne Club at the same place in 1831; a fragment about Alexander's death in Ancient Metrical Romances, printed from the Auchinleck MS. by the Abbotsford Club, 1886; and see also "Kyng Alisaunder" in vol. i. of Weber's Metrical Romances, and the account of the subject in his preface. The three last-mentioned are all in the same rhythm, viz. in rimed lines of eight syllables. Cambridge.

WALTER W. SKEAT.

JOHN DAVIDSON OF HALTREE.

James Davidson, of Haltree, bookseller in Edinburgh, married Elizabeth Brown, a sister of William Brown, minister, Edinburgh, who was served heiress-portioner to him March 31, 1738.

Of this marriage, John Davidson was the eldest, B. A fragment about Alexander's visit to the perhaps I should say only son. Having been Gymnosophists, in MS. Bodley 2464, now num- educated for the legal profession in Scotland, he bered 264. It is inserted in the splendid French passed Writer to the Signet, and was agent for MS. of Alexander, one of the greatest trea- many of the principal noblemen and landed prosures of the Bodleian Library. The handwrit-prietors of Scotland. For many years he was ing of this poem (which is beautifully illustrated Crown Agent, in which office he was succeeded by illuminations) can hardly be later than A.D. by Hew Warrender, Esq. of Bruntsfield, whose

curious old family seat at the top of Edinburgh Links is carefully preserved and occasionally inhabited by the Warrender family.

With the crown agency Warrender succeeded to, or purchased, a large house adjoining Edinburgh Castle, originally the residence of Davidson, which then had a fine garden, and perhaps, from its elevated situation, the best view in the metropolis, extending on the north over the Frith of Forth to the kingdom, as traditionally called, of Fife; on the east, Salisbury Craigs and Arthur's Seat; on the south, Blackford and Braidcelebrated in Scott's glorious Marmion; on the west, the Pentland Hills, the Castle, and part of Linlithgow. The Braid property and romantic hill now belong to Gordon of Cluny. Both previously had been possessed by a family of the name of Broun. Charles Broun, of Braid, was served heir to his cousin Andrew Broun, of Braid, November 11, 1728. The house has now been removed, and its site converted into a reservoir for the Edinburgh Water-works.

Davidson was one of that set of literary men who reflected credit on the Scotish metropolis towards the end of the last century. He was associated with Lord Hailes, William Tytler, George Paton, Plummer of Middlestead, David Herd (the meritorious editor of a Collection of Scotish Songs and Ballads, in two volumes), and Callander of Craigforth, who wrote an Ode to Harmony, much admired, and who edited the "King's Quhair" by James I., &c.

Mr. Davidson privately printed and distributed among his friends a few copies of the following tractates, which may be worth recording in 'N. & Q.":

1. "Accounts of the Chamberlain of Scotland in the

years 1329, 1330, and 1331, from the Originals in the Exchequer; with some other curious Papers. Edinburgh, 1771." Pp. 31. Title and short preface.

The appendices are two. They contain, among other "The Charter of Erecvaluable very papers, tion of the Lordship of Hamilton by James II., anno 1445"-from the original in the archives of the Dukes of Hamilton; and the "Indenture of John Lord of the Isles, and John of Lorn, 1354." The third appendix is usually wanting. It contains: "Letters of Caption, issuing in name of Henrie and Mary King and Queen of Scottis," dated at "Holyrudhous, the xviij day of ffebruair, and of our reignes the first and xxiiij zeirs."

These letters are subscribed "Marie R." "Henry R." Mr. Davidson remarks, that "the king's name is put to this writing by a stamp,' as Buchanan asserted it was a fact denied by Goodal (vol. i. p. 238 of his Vindication of Mary). A seal with the royal arms is attached.

2. "Charta Willelmi Regis Scotorum Canonicis de Jedburgh concessa circa Annum M.C.LXV, ex autographo

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3. "Observations on the Regium Majestatem." 8vo, PP. 15. [A very convincing argument, showing "that the Regium Majestatem is a book copied from Glanville."]

4. "Remarks on some of the Editions of the Acts of

the Parliaments of Scotland." 8vo, pp. 16. June 1, 1792. 5. "Copies of various Papers, &c., relating to the Peerages of Brandon and Dover." 4to, pp. 30. [These referred to the successful attempt to obtain an alteration of a judgment of a Committee of Privileges, by which a Scotch peer was prevented from sitting in the House of Peers by reason of an English peerage. Besides settling this question, it established that no decision of a Committee of Privileges is final.]

My set of Davidson's papers belonged to Andrew Lumisden, Esq., the author of the Topography of Rome and the agent of the exiled Stuarts. Many interesting particulars of this gentleman will be found in the late Mr. Dennistoun's Memoirs of Sir Robert Strange. It bears this attes"London, June the 1st, 1792. "These curious papers and tracts were published from time to time, by John Davidson, Esq., of Haltree. They were never sold. He made presents of them to his friends; amongst whom he justly reckoned "ANDREW LUMISDEN."

tation:

:

Davidson, although married, had no family.. His wife died at Edinburgh on March 5, 1796. By his last settlement, his estate of Haltree was left to a younger son of Sir William Miller, Bart., a judge of the Court of Session and a much esteemed friend of Mr. Davidson. J. M.

LAMBETH LIBRARY AND ITS LIBRARIANS.* Having thus traced the origin of the library, the reader is now invited to glance at the list of scholars to whose loving care the book-treasures at Lambeth have been from time to time committed.

First and foremost stands the honoured name of HENRY WHARTON, "the favourite pupil of the great Newton"-"the favourite chaplain of Sancroft, whose early death was deplored by all parties as an irreparable loss to letters," as his memorial tablet states, and as Dean Stanley adds, "the youthful pride of Cambridge, as Atterbury was of Oxford." The learned author of the Anglia Sacra, and a host of works whose titles are too numerous to record here, died at the early age of thirty-one. His funeral in Westminster Abbey was attended by Archbishop Tenison, Bishop Lloyd, and a large body of the clergy. Sprat read the service. The Westminster scholars were caused to attend-"an uncommon respect" at that time; the fees were remitted; and Purcell's Anthem was sung over his grave. Continued from p. 10.

Dean

PAUL COLOMIEZ, or COLOMESIUS, a learned French Protestant who came to this country at the invitation of Isaac Vossius, then Canon of Windsor, was, at the recommendation of the latter, appointed by Sancroft librarian at Lambeth, and collated to the rectory of Eynesford, in Kent, Nov. 18, 1687. He retained the office until the deprivation of Sancroft. His Gallia Orientalis, containing an account of such French writers as were skilled in the Oriental languages, printed at the Hague in 1665, and reprinted at Hamburg in 1709 under the care of the learned Fabricius; his Italia et Hispania Orientalis; Catalogus Manuscriptorum Codicum Isaaci Vossii, and a number of similar works, have preserved his name among scholars.

EDMUND GIBSON, afterwards Bishop of London, to which he was translated from Lincoln in 1723, was, on the recommendation of his uncle Dr. Gibson, appointed librarian at Lambeth by Archbishop Tenison in 1700. The catalogue of printed books in the library, formed on the plan of the Bodleian catalogue, was first drawn up by Dr. Gibson. A fair copy was made by Dr. Wilkins in 1718, in three volumes folio, which has been continued by his successors. The bishop's translation of the Saxon Chronicle, his edition of Camden, and, above all, his well-known Codex Juris Ecclesiastici Anglicani (two volumes folio), of which a second edition was published in 1761, attest his learning; while his Preservative against Popery (three volumes folio), and many smaller works, show him to have been a faithful son of the Church of England.

DR. BENJAMIN IBBOT, the son of the Rev. Thomas Ibbot, Vicar of Swaffham, who was appointed librarian by Tenison in 1708, is chiefly known by his Boyle Lectures. He was made Prebendary of Westminster Nov. 16, 1724; and dying at Camberwell in April following, was buried in the Abbey. A selection from his Sermons was published for the benefit of his widow by Dr. Samuel Clarke in 1726.

DR. DAVID WILKINS, the next librarian, held the office from about 1715 to 1718, in which year he completed the catalogues of manuscripts and printed books. But, great as was this service, he did far greater by the publication of his Coptic New Testament in 1716; the Coptic Pentateuch in 1731; his edition of Selden's Works, three volumes folio, 1726; his fine edition of the Anglo-Saxon Laws, folio, 1721; and, above all, by his most valuable work" Concilia Magnæ Britanniæ et Hiberniæ a Synodo Verolamiensi, A.D. 446 ad Londinensem A.D. 1717," which he published in 1737 in four volumes folio. Dr. Wilkins died in 1745, but had ceased to act as librarian for some years previously.

His successor was DR. JOHN HENRY OTT, a learned Swiss, the son of a gentleman at Zurich

who exhibited much kindness to Archbishop Wake when in Switzerland in his earlier years. This kindness the archbishop repaid by making his son librarian at Lambeth: an office which he continued to hold until the death of the Archbishop in 1737.

JOHN JONES, of Trinity College, Cambridge, was appointed librarian by Archbishop Potter on his going to reside at Lambeth in 1737. He was related to the archbishop's wife. He quitted Lambeth when he was collated to the vicarage of Portling, in Kent, in 1741.

HENRY HALL, Fellow of King's College, Cambridge, was his successor; and not only continued librarian till the death of his patron Archbishop Potter, in 1747, but was retained in the office by Archbishop Herring, who also appointed him one of his chaplains. On the death of Archbishop Herring, in 1757, he resigned the librarianship of Lambeth, and resided chiefly at Harbledown, to which he had been collated in 1750, where he died Nov. 1763.

ANDREW COLTEE DUCAREL, LL.D., a native of Normandy, who, having been admitted a Gentleman Commoner of St. John's College, Oxford, proceeded LL.D. June 1, 1738, was appointed librarian by Archbishop Hutton, May 3, 1757, and was successively continued in that office by Archbishops Secker, Cornwallis, and Moore. Ducarel had been previously known to Archbishop Herring, to whom he had made some proposals for indexing the papers and registers at Lambeth; his biographer John Nichols is therefore fully justified in saying as he does, in the Literary Anecdotes (vi. 408), that he enjoyed the esteem of five successive prelates.

Dr. Ducarel was a most industrious and voluminous antiquarian writer; and, although not in holy orders, from the time of his appointment to be keeper of the library at Lambeth, he devoted himself almost entirely to ecclesiastical antiquities, and more particularly to those of the province of Canterbury. But he is here chiefly to be remembered for the diligence and abilities he displayed with reference to the Lambeth catalogues. The catalogue begun by Bishop Gibson, and continued by Dr. Wilkins with the greatest minuteness, was completed by Dr. Ducarel to the time of Archbishop Cornwallis. He made a distinct catalogue of the books of Archbishop Secker, and another, in three volumes folio, of the pamphlets and tracts bound up by Archbishop Cornwallis; and extended the catalogue of MSS. from No. 720, to which it had been brought by Wilkins, to No. 1147. He made also an index of all the Lambeth registers; and, in addition, a general index for his own use, in forty-eight volumes, containing an account of every instrument relating to the see, province, and diocese of Canterbury, in the registers of all the archbishops, from Peck

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