Folly itselfe, and baldnes may be praised, where his editors indulge in some very strange statements. The occurrence of this prince's name Joseph Hall mentions the two works totwice in Middlesex, sc. in Isleworth gether, Satires,' VI. i. 159, and Islington"; the apparent omission of that county from the Tribal Hidage'; the probability of the correctness of the emendation of gifla to Gisla ; and the propinquity of 16, gifla, and 17, hicca, in the list, would seem to justify the location I have proposed. ALFRED ANSCOMBE. -30, Albany Road, Stroud Green, N. [MR. ANSCOMBE's paper was in the Editor's on · The Burghal Hidage,' ante, p. 2, was printed.] hands some time before MR. BROWNBILL's note With regard to the 'Commentarii' on Moriæ Encomium' published under Lister's name, but frequently attributed to Erasmus, Mr. P. S. Allen has recently shown in his edition of Erasmus's 'Epistolæ,' vol. ii. p. 407, that the question of authorship is solved by Erasmus's own statement in an unpublished letter to Bucer, from which it appears that, in consequence of Lister's dilatoriness, Erasmus had been compelled to supply a great part of the notes himself, but had generously allowed Lister to take the full credit. EDWARD BENSLY. University College, Aberystwyth. A writer, ROBERT BURTON'S LIBRARY.-At 11 S. i. 325 I drew attention to the appearance in a second-hand catalogue of a book (John Pits's Relationes') that had formerly been in Robert Burton's possession. Prof. Moore Smith has pointed out to me that in Mr. "J'Y SUIS, J'Y RESTE."-This well-known James Tregaskis's "Caxton Head" Cata- phrase is usually attributed to Marshal logue 705, dated 12 June, 1911, there is MacMahon in the trenches before the another book that once belonged to Burton. Malakoff, e.g., in 'Dictionary of Quotations The item in question consists of two (French),' by T. B. Harbottle and Col. P. H. volumes bound together apparently by Dalbiac (1908), p. 75, and Geflügelte an early sixteenth century Cambridge Worte,' ed. 20 (1900), p. 519. binder. The first is a copy of Erasmus's however, in The Athenæum of 1 July, Moriæ Encomium' with Gerhard Lister's reviewing the English translation Men and notes, Erasmus's epistle to Martin Dorp, Things of my Time,' by the Marquis de Seneca's Ludus de Morte Claudii Cæsaris' Castellane, says that the Marquis used the with Beatus Rhenanus's Scholia, and John phrase in his speech to the National Assembly Free's Latin translation of Synesius's on 18 November, 1873, and 'Praise of Baldness,' this also with Beatus Rhenanus's Scholia. The volume was printed by John Froben at Basel in 1515. Bound up with this are Erasmus's De Duplici Copia Rerum ac Verborum,' De Ratione Studii & Instituendi Pueros,' and De Puero Iesu Concio,' printed by Ascensius (Josse Bade) at Paris, 1512. According to the account given in the catalogue, the book contains the autograph signatures of Robert Burton (2 Jan., 1595) and his elder brother William (1593). There are said to be numerous interlinear and marginal notes, presumably by Robert Burton.' I regret that I have had no opportunity of examining the book. 66 Erasmus's 'Moriæ Encomium' was printed several times in the same volume with the Latin version of Synesius's Φαλάκρας ἐγκώμιον. Some time ago I had conjectured that Burton used one of these editions. See, for example, i. 1, 3, 2 of The Anatomy of Melancholy,' where a reference to Synesius," in laud. calvit.," is found between two quotations from The Praise of Folly.' 66 now asserts that it was invented by him and his wife during the preparation of his speech. This is a good story, and bears some mark of probability, as serious historians of the Third Republic have quoted M. de Castellane's speech as the principal corroboration of the legend. Yet we are not entirely convinced that the confessed hoaxer of the National Assembly is not now hoaxing his readers." In oratory a man is no more upon oath than in lapidary inscriptions, to quote a Johnsonian comparison. The careful inquirer would perhaps ascertain whether MacMahon had that gift for incisive brevity which belonged to some great men of action; otherwise one might be justified in concluding that, as usual, some professional maker of dicta gave a saying or the germ of a saying that quality which makes it "fly lively o'er the lips of men." When once the idea of a hoax is admitted, decision becomes much more difficult. NEL MEZZO. "MAKE A LONG ARM."-It could not be expected that the N.E.D., to which we are all profoundly indebted, should in every case give the earliest example of a phrase. Bernardus non vidit omnia. Still, it is curious that no earlier instance than 1884 should be given of the above phrase under arm. Fuller, in his - Pisgah-Sight,' 1650, p. 103, says: How long an arme must Naphtali make to reach to Judah! A writer in The Massachusetts Spy, 25 April, 1827, seems to regard it as a local Americanism, which it is not : "That class of people in New Jersey, who are not very particular about the etiquette of fashionable life, have a habit, when inviting their guests at table to help themselves, of saying 'make a long arm.” RICHARD H. THORNTON. 36, Upper Bedford Place, W.C. ST. SWITHIN'S DAY.-The common adage regarding St. Swithin is : St. Swithin's Day, if thou dost rain, For forty days it will remain ; St. Swithin's Day, if thou be fair, For forty days 'twill rain nae mair. Many persons still watch the appearance of the sky with anxiety on this important day, oblivious of the circumstance that total change of date has been effected by the Gregorian reformation of the calendar, and that they should consequently make their atmospheric observations nearly a fortnight later. Swithin, or Swithun, was born in the neighbourhood of Winchester, probably about the year 800. He became a monk, and gradually rose until in 852 he succeeded to the see of Winchester. It is not necessary here to give the life of the saint. I need only say that he died about 862, leaving directions to be buried in a vile place, under the droppings from the eaves on the north side of Winchester Cathedral, which was accordingly done. A hundred years afterwards, when the Cathedral of Winchester was being rebuilt, Bishop Ethelwold and Archbishop Dunstan were desirous of enriching the new church by the possession of some distinguished relics; and in order to revive the popular veneration for St. Swithin, appeal was made to King Edgar, but the rain fell a According to tradition, the saint's remains reposed for a hundred years in the neglected spot that he had chosen in the churchyard. As the clergy felt that a pious member of their order should not occupy such a position they, on a certain day, purposed removing the body with great ceremony into the adjoining cathedral; incessantly, which they interpreted as sign from heaven warning them not to disturb the remains in contravention of the wishes of the saint; so they abandoned the idea. The popular notion concerning St. Swithin's Day is probably due to some pagan belief regarding the prophetic character of some day about the same period of the year as St. Swithin's Day. France has her patrons of showers : S'il pleut le jour de Saint Médard, S'il pleut le jour de Saint Gervais et de Saint Il pleut quarante jours après. In Belgium there is St. Godeliève; and in Germany a prophetic character is ascribed to the day of the Seven Sleepers. The legend of St. Médard is related by the late MR. WILLIAM BATES at 1 S. xii. 137; see also pp. 233 and 312 in the same volume. TOM JONES. [See post, p. 55.] ST. EXPEDITUS.-In an article entitled 'Some Imaginary Saints' Dr. A. Smythe Palmer tells an amusing story in The Guardian of 30 June. Here it is: "Within the last five years the Roman Church had a narrow escape of being saddled with a brand-new Saint. Some nuns in Paris were expecting a box of relics from Rome. In due course a case arrived bearing with the address the word spedito ('dispatched '), and the date appended. Obviously these were the bones of some famous though hitherto unknown martyrSt. Expeditus, one whose very name would speak to the faithful useful lessons of good speed and expedition. Appropriate emblems of palm and prompt action were being devised for his statue, when the correct interpretation of the prosaic railway label by some busybody dispelled the romantic vision and robbed the Church of a new martyr, St. Forwarded.' a garden : "The priuate wey longith to nyze towne and is schort and ny; and ofte y growe with gras.' This is vastly interesting as it stands but there must be some mistake. "Five years ago"! Why, in 1897 St. Expeditus was niched in N. & Q.' (8 S. xii. 425); From the practice of using this shrub, and in 1906 I wrote from Laon about a Ligustrum Vulgare, to make hedges, which, fascinating image of him I had seen at of course, were kept carefully clipped for Vaux. I believe I had previously met with the sake of convenience, rather than for one at Tarascon, but I failed to find it last ornament, causing them to present a formal time I was in the country of Tartarin. and regular appearance no doubt the variant 10 S. v. 107, 156, 216, 297, may also be pro-"prim- print,' prim," was or simply "prim,' fitably consulted as to St. Expeditus. He evolved, the former looking uncommonly seems to be rather mythical, but certainly like a mis-reading, or misspelling, of "prim was not about to be invented a lustrum privet," ago. ST, SWITHIN, TAILED ENGLISHMEN. (See 7 S. vi. 347, 493; vii. and viii. passim.)-At the second reference a distich is quoted from a mediæval MS. at Berlin, as follows: Anglicus a tergo caudam gerit; est pecus ergo. Anglicus a tergo caudam gerit; est canis ergo. RICHARD H. THORNTON. 36, Upper Bedford Place, W.C. WHIG CLUB BOOK.-I think I recently saw an announcement to the effect that the Whig Club Book was to be printed, and I hope that this may be true. I came across the other day a newspaper cutting, dating from the thirties or forties of the last century, in which it is stated that the Whig Club Book from 1784 to its decline was sold at Southgate's auction-rooms in Fleet Street for 36 guineas, and that the purchaser was "Bagster." W. ROBERTS. "PRIVET": ITS ETYMOLOGY. Though the N.E.D.' considers the etymology of "privet" to be "unknown," and rejects the idea of its being a doublet of private (see 10 S. ix. 148, 197), that great authority affords, I think, ample evidence in support of such a conclusion. The word's several variants, priuie, prevet, prim, prim-print, are quite in line with the obsolete forms of "private," viz., pryvat, privet, privit; while the earliest quotation under the adjective from Trevisa (1398) seems to indicate how the former term came to be applied to a private road, way, or hedge, or to a portion of ground shut off from the main part of The other early examples given by the 'N.E.D.,' and "The borders round about are set with priuie sweete," Breton (1593), show pretty plainly the derivation of the word to be analogous to that of the substantive common ; the latter denoting land common to the public needs, as the former denoted a path or hedge demarcating private property or preserves. One more example from the year 1650 makes the matter, I think, quite obvious: "If all your regiments were but so many private bushes." de In regard to the meaning of the Latin quotation of 1256 at the first reference, excepto marisco qui vocatur benny et excepto parco et excepto cooperto preuet," I would construe" except the marsh known as Benny's, together with the plantation and Preuet's covert," Prevet being a personal name of the locality; while, as SIR J. MURRAY observes, the name of the bush does not occur in English till the sixteenth century. Even the adjectival form is only met with apparently towards the end of the fourteenth. New York. N. W. HILL. San Juan Bautista. "This vessel, a hired transport or nao, the property of Fernando Ome, 200 tons, crew of 60, with 24 guns, carried no treasure." T. F. D. Queries. WE must request correspondents desiring in formation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that answers may be sent to them direct. SHERIDAN'S CRITIC': T. VAUGHAN.In connexion with the Gala Performance at His Majesty's Theatre on 27 June, at which a mutilated version of The Critic' was represented, an excellent article on that play appeared in The Morning Post of that date, which, for purposes of future reference as well as on its own merits, deserves to be recorded in these columns. The article reproduced a notice of the play which was published in The Morning Post for 1 November, 1779, two days after the play was produced, and which was evidently written by some one who was behind the scenes, and could identify the characters who were burlesqued in the piece. Richard Cumberland is generally supposed to stand for Sir Fretful Plagiary, but, as the article says : : "What of the other characters ? Who was the original of Dangle? The writer of the notice appears to know. Some have said he was a 'Mr. Vaughan' who had busied himself in the Richmond Theatre, and had written letters in The Morning Post." I should like to learn something further of this "Mr. Vaughan." In a copy of the first edition of 'The Critic' in my possession a former owner has pasted on one of the fly-leaves the following cutting from The Morning Chronicle of 28 December, 1811 : Thomas Vaughan, Esq.-This Gentleman, whose death we recently announced, was formerly well known in the circles of literature and fashion. He used to declare that he was the person mentioned by Churchill in the following lines of his 'Rosciad ': While Vaughan, or Dapper, call him what you will, collection of Poems, two or three Plays, Farces, Prologues, Epilogues, and Novels. For many years past, he had been in the constant, and almost daily habit of sending his poetical contributions to the several public prints, subscribed 'T. V. Lambeth Road,' where he had long resided, though without necessity. We were in the constant habit of receiving from him poetical trifles, some of which have met the public eye; and, to shew that the passion was not abated by age, we received from him a copy of verses on the day preceding his death. He was a tolerable good scholar, with a ready and a lively humour in conversation, which he retained to the last. He was for many years Clerk of the Peace for Westminster, and held that office at his death." The late Mr. R. W. Lowe, in the notes to his edition of The Rosciad,' 1891, says in one on the passage quoted above (p. 31):– "Thomas Vaughan, Clerk to the Commission of the Peace for Westminster, wrote some plays and was a great dabbler in theatrical affairs. His nickname of Dapper' was given him by Sheridan is said to have intended Dangle in The Colman in the course of a literary quarrel; and Critic' to be a portrait of Vaughan." ST. SABINUS OR ST. SALVIUS.-Shortly before his death Col. Harding of Barnstaple told Mr. Thomas Wainwright of that town that St. Sabinus (or St. Salvius) was a British saint who, when on a missionary voyage, Shall blow the trumpet, or give out the bill. "It is more probable that the Vaughan here alluded to was the brother of Mrs. Pritchard, the celebrated Actress, and who was on the stage at the same time. Sands. Mr. Vaughan, however, in consequence of this assumption, generally went by the name of Dapper Vaughan. He was also called Vinegar Vaughan, among his friends, not from any real sourness in his temper, but from a kind of sarcastic humour. He is also supposed to be the person represented by Mr. Dangle in was wrecked on Woolacombe Can any of your readers give an authority for this statement, or for the shipwreck of any early saint upon that coast? It had been intended to dedicate the new church to St. Sabinus, but so far no confirmation of Col. Harding's story has Sheridan's Critic.' He was the Author of a been forthcoming. G. B. LONGSTAFF, POPE AND BYRON QUOTED IN A COURT OF JUSTICE.-Leslie Stephen in his essay on Pope as a Moralist,' which appeared in The Cornhill Magazine in 1873, and was reprinted in the first volume of Hours in a Library,' wrote :— "A recent dispute in a court of justice shows that even our most cultivated men have forgotten Pope so far as to be ignorant of the source of the familiar words What can ennoble sots, or slaves, or cowards? Alas! not all the blood of all the Howards." ('Essay on Man,' iv. 215.) A little further on he observes: · Pope, we have seen, is recognized even by judges of the land only through the medium of Byron." What is the incident to which Leslie Stephen was referring? The way in which the reference is made suggests that the case in question was one of general notoriety. The first Tichborne trial, it may be noted, had come to an end in 1872. EDWARD BENSLY. University College, Aberystwyth. Sir John Lawrence, Governor-General) in 1866, each teeming with personal allusions, sometimes rather trenchant in character. The preface mentions that some of the contents have appeared in Indian newspapers and periodicals, and no doubt there are many yet living who can supply the author's name. W. B. H. GEORGE ELIOT ON A MAGIC RING.-In Silas Marner,' chap. xv., we read :— "That famous ring that pricked its owner when he forgot duty and followed desire-I wonder if it pricked very hard when he set out on the chase, or whether it pricked but lightly then, and only pierced to the quick when the chase had long been ended, and hope, folding her wings, looked backward and became regret. What ring is meant ? Who was the hunter, and what the special occasion here hinted at? F. E. BEVAN. 16, Alexandra Drive, Liverpool S. [Several rings possessing this magical property are described at 9 S. xi. 211, 490.] B. W. PROCTER (" BARRY CORNWALL ").— have some autograph verses by him beginning LIEUT.-COL. OLLNEY.-Can any reader I give me some particulars concerning Lieut.Col. Ollney, who left 17 pictures to the National Gallery in 1837 ? E. V. LUCAS. TROMP IN ENGLAND: JOHN STANHOPE, LONDON PRINTER, 1664.-Dom Francisco Manuel de Mello, the Portuguese writer, met Tromp in August-September, 1641, and heard from that admiral an account of his victory over Oquendo at the Battle of the Downs in 1639. The place of meeting is variously written in Portuguese works as Valmir and Valmud. Was Tromp at Walmer or Falmouth at the date mentioned ? Among the presses which Dom Francisco Manuel engaged to print his works in 1664 (he says) was that of Juan Stenop in London. Is anything known of a printer named John Stanhope at that date? EDGAR PRESTAGE. Chiltern, Bowdon, Cheshire. LYRICS AND LAYS.'-Can any one inform me as to the authorship of "Lyrics and Lays, by Pips," an octavo volume of 210 pages, published at Calcutta in 1867, and consisting of about forty poetical pieces of varying length and merit ? The subjects range from occurrences of 1848 to those of 1866, and the most important and longest contents are 'The Great Rent Case: a Lay of the High Court in the Year 1865,' and The Great Durbar' (held at Agra by Hearts we had in our sunny youth. Have they ever been printed? XYLOGRAPHER. |