Oldalképek
PDF
ePub
[blocks in formation]
[ocr errors]

All this obviously refers to some member of Parliament who was unfortunate enough to put the cart before the horse, evidently to the great amusement of some hearer who "made a note of it. WALTER W. SKEAT. FALSE QUANTITY IN BYRON'S "DON JUAN."Not only in Clarke's, but Murray's edition, I find the following line:

"And so Zoe spent her's, as most women do." I have corrected my copies as follows, till the true or a better reading is announced :

"And so too Zoe spent her's as most women do."
(ii. 136.)
T. J. BUCKTON.

SILVER FONT.-The font at Canterbury was of silver, and was sometimes sent for to Westminster on the occasion of a royal christening, Simpson refers to Harl. MS. 6079, which I had not time to consult. W. H. S.

WASHINGTON'S MASONIC APRON.-At a recent masonic celebration in Winchester, Virginia, the masonic apron worn by the orator, W. H. Travers, Esq., formerly belonged to General Washington, having been presented to him by General Lafayette. This apron has the flags of France and the United States combined, beautifully wrought upon it in silver and gold, forming by their combination the principal masonic emblems. It was sent to Mount Nebo Lodge, of Winchester, Virginia, by a member of the Washington family, in 1811, and has been ever since carefully preserved by the brethren. W. W.

STUFFING THE EARS WITH COTTON.-It is an odd coincidence that this phrase, which was used in the condemned cells of Newgate during the chaplaincy of the excellent and book-loving Rev. H. S. Cotton, to express the exhortations of the minister of religion to the condemned criminal, was used with an exactly similar meaning by Henry IV. of France. When it suited the humour or the policy of that monarch to turn Catholic for a time, his confessor was the Abbé Coton; and Henry was accustomed to say of the confessor's pious counsels, that they were "stuffing his ears with Coton." The immediate authority for this anecdote is Steinmetz's History of the Jesuits, but it is the common property of all the writers upon the times of Henry IV. D. BLAIR.

Melbourne.

AN OLD DON-JUANIC RHYME. In his translation of Don Quixote, Shelton (or his reviser, Captain Stevens, edit. 1700), commences his version of Abtissidora's farewell to her impracticable knight-errant thus

"Now, in the name of the devil,

Why, Sir Knight, so uncivil,

To be gone, and take never a leave of us?
Pray do not bestir

So, with whip and with spur,

The ribs and the flanks of your furious Bucephalus." E. L. S.

LINES FROM A CANADIAN PAPER.-I enclose an imperfect copy of a few lines from a Canadian newspaper, of date 1833. They were probably taken from L'Ami du Peuple, printed in Montreal.

As the lines express attachment to our government as well as patriotic feeling, I would send copies of "N. & Q." to an old friend in Canada should you think them worthy of a place. I think that the perusal of the lines will be gratifying to readers of the paper, if it be still in circulation after so long an interval:

*** Canada, terre chérie,
Par des braves tu fus peuplé;
Ils cherchoient, loin de leur patrie,
Une terre de liberté.

"Nos pères, sortis de la France,
Etoient l'élite des guerriers,
Et leurs enfans en leur vaillance
N'ont jamais flétris les lauriers.
"Belles, sont belles nos campagnes!
In Canada qu'on vit content!
Sublimes montagnes,
Bords du superbe St.-Laurent.
"Habitant de cette contrée

Que nature veut embellir,
Tu peus marcher tête-levée,
Ton pays doit t'enorgueillir.
"Respecte la main protectrice
D'Albion, ton digne soutien ;
Mais fais échoir le malice
D'ennemi nourri dans ton sein.
"Ne fléchis jamais sous l'orage,
Tu n'as pour maîtres que les loix;
Tu n'es point fait pour l'esclavage,
Albion veille sur tes droits.
"Si d'Albion la main chérie
Cesse un jour de (te) protéger,
Soutiens toi seule, ô ma patrie,
Méprise un secours étranger."

CONSTANT READER.

HOLLAND: FINE LINEN.-We are assured by the learned Samuel Johnson that HOLLAND means Fine linen made in Holland; and so wrote Noah Webster for the information of transatlantic students. Such also was the conclusion of the writer till he chanced to hit on the paragraph which follows:

"La ville de GLADBACH est petite, il y a des Calvinistes et des Juifs, mais le nombre des Catholiques, qui ont pour curé un religieux, est plus grand. C'est là qu'on

[blocks in formation]

I do not find Gladbach in Malte-Brun or Balbi: it must be near Dusseldorf.-The old names of textile fabrics may sometimes lead to erroneous notions, but the holland of former times was no doubt similar to that of our own times. In the Unton inventories we read of holland sheets (1596), and holland towels (1620); and in one of the wardrobe accounts of prince Henry, eldest son of James I. we have holland for small furnishings at 10/ an ell, and holland for shirts at 1314 an ell. Such were the charges of master Alexander Wilson, tailor to the Princes grace, in 1608. BOLTON CORNEY.

Queries.

UNKNOWN OBJECT IN YAXLEY CHURCH,
SUFFOLK.

Some time since there were found in the parvise of the north porch of this church two ornamental iron wheels, which I will endeavour to describe more particularly.

Each wheel, made of sheet iron, consists of two circles and two Greek crosses rivetted around and upon a convex boss, or umbo, pierced in the centre. From the centre of the umbo to the cir

cumference of the inner circle is eight and a half inches, and of the outer circle fourteen and threequarter inches. Between each of the intersections of the crosses is rivetted upon the centre umbo a leaf, cusped, five inches in length; and upon the inner (or middle) circle two similar leaves also pointing outwards, falling in the eight compartments on each side of a fleur-de-lis rivetted on the outer circle and pointing inwards. These wheels are separate and injured; there is but one fleur-de-lis remaining, and that not perfect. Both wheels together weigh thirteen pounds.

logical Society visited Long Stratton (St. Mary's) church, a pair of wheels in every respect similar was shown us in the vestry. The two were brought together cymbal-like, and hung up by a ring at the end of a handle, the lower part of the handle forking from the circumference to the centre, where it was fixed by a strong pin. I can compare it to nothing but to the familiar trundle that children are seen with in the streets.

I fear, notwithstanding my diffuseness, that I have scarcely made myself intelligible to readers; but I shall be much obliged for any help from those who have understood me.

P.S. Does this extract throw any light on the puzzle ? –

"MIDSUMMER EVE.-Durand, speaking of the sites of the Feast of St. John Baptist, informs us of this curious circumstance, that in some places they roll a wheel about to signify that the sun, then occupying the highest place in the zodiac, is beginning to descend, and in the amplified account of these ceremonies given by the poet Naogeorgus, we read that this wheel was taken up to the top of a mountain, and rolled down from thence; and that, as it had previously been covered with straw, twisted about it and set on fire, it appeared at a distance as if the sun had been falling from the sky. . . . . People imagine that all their ill-luck rolls away from them together with this wheel."-Bohn's Brand, Pop. Antiq. i. 298, quoting Harl. MS. 2345, art. 100.

Yaxley.

W. H. SEWELL.

PORTRAITS OF YORKSHIREMEN.

Can any of your readers inform me where portraits of the undermentioned persons are to be found?

1. Joel Bates, by Dance; born at Halifax, and conducted Handel's "Messiah" in Westminster Abbey.

2. Dr. John Berkenhout; born at Leeds, author of the Synopsis, and Commissioner to the American States.

3. John Bigland; born in Holderness. Author, eighteenth century.

4. William Blanchard, by De Wilde, actor; born at York, 1800.

5. Dr. Thomas Burnet, by Kneller; Chaplain to King William III.

6. Rev. Francis Fawkes, writer; born 17211777.

7. John Flaxman, sculptor; born at York, 1755. 8. John Harrison, inventor of the chronometer; born 1693; died 1776.

I am very desirous to know the use of these strange objects. The accomplished author of Decorative Painting in the Middle Ages (E. L. Blackburne, Esq.), who is now engaged in the renovation of the church, is of opinion that they are the hinge-plates or hinge-fronts of one of the church doors; but I do not feel persuaded that this was their use, for I cannot find any indication upon the wheels to show that they have been wrenched off as from a door, or were ever fastened to one. My own belief is that for some purpose they were intended to be fastened together, either for use or for ornament. Both the central bosses are pierced by a hole a quarter of an inch in diameter. Last Sept. (1866), when the Norfolk Archæo- | 1695.

9. Thomas Harrison, architect; born 1744. Designed the bridge over the River Dee, and other works. Died 1829.

10. George Holmes, Record Keeper; born at Skipton, 1662; died 1749.

11. Henry Jenkins, centenarian.

12. John Kettlewell, Nonjuring divine, 1653

[blocks in formation]

LORD DARNLEY.-Sandford says, in his useful work, that Darnley was not five months in Scotland before his marriage with the and queen; that he, "at the time, did not exceed his nineteenth year.

[ocr errors]

Can you inform me what was the exact date of his birth, which is said to have occurred at Temple Newsome in 1545, as I am desirous of ascertaining his age at the time of his assassination?

Mary's marriage with Darnley was most probably political. He was a dangerous rival: his descent from Margaret Tudor had placed him too near the crown of England. Had he remained in the South, and propitiated Elizabeth, it is very probable he would have been her successor.

That Darnley passionately loved Mary, appears certain. He was young, accomplished, and, unfortunately for himself, credulous. This was soon found out; and the whispers as to Rizzio's intercourse with his wife brought about the catastrophe that ultimately ended in his own murder. J. M.

arms."

DEPLEDGE.—I wish to learn, through your instructive journal, the meaning of a term used by the villagers for a portion of the place in which I live. It is called "the depledge." I find nothing to help me in the dictionaries but the obsolete word "pleached," used by Shakspeare, and reintroduced into poetry by Emerson in his last volume of verses, where he writes of his "pleached garden"; while Shakspeare had written "the pleached bower," and of "pleached In my deeds the field is called the "depleach," which comes nearer to the ancient term for woven or plaited work. My "depledge' used to be a "boggart place -a dark mass of trees; and I wonder often whether the term "depledge," or "depleach," arose from this circumstance: if so, why the prefix de-? None of the old inhabitants can tell me why the place is called the "Depledge"; so I ask you, Mr. Editor, is the name elsewhere used for a tangled collection of trees, a pleached "natural" bower?

Cheadle, Cheshire.

[ocr errors]

D. S.

[ocr errors]

ERMINE IN HERALDRY.I am told that an ermine field in a coat armorial is indicative of regal descent; but I can find nothing, in any

heraldic work within my reach, at all confirmatory of such an origin. May I beg for any specific information upon this point? M. D.

PASSAGE FROM FORTESCUE.-In an unpublished treatise by Sir John Fortescue, the author of the De Laudibus Legum Angliæ, which bears the title of De Natura Legis Naturæ, the following passage occurs as part of a statement intended to prove that a woman has no right of succession to a kingdom:

.....

"Philosophus" (meaning, I take for granted, Aristotle) "in libro de Animalibus dicit quod mulierum membra quæ ad actus generationis, gestus, et nutrimenti prolis ordinantur grossiora sunt quam virorum, sed cetera earum membra. minora existunt quam virorum; scilicet ossa et nervi minora sunt, debiliora, et minus virtuosa in fœminis quam in viris; dicit etiam quod mulier est mas occasionatus."

What is the sense of this phrase? I have looked through the De Animalibus in vain for the original passage. One is tempted to render "occasionatus", "with a specialty." But the word is not to be found in Facciolati, and is found in Ducange, with the sense of tributis gravatus, taxed for the king's "occasions." Should I therefore translate "a mulcted male" ?-a male with something taken away-an imperfect male? C. P. F.

EARL OF HOME. - In Lodge's Genealogy of the Peerage, voce "Home," occurs this statement: "Maldred left three sons, of whom Dolphin, the eldest, was ancestor of the Nevilles and Cospatrick, the youngest, who, with his descendants, are styled Earls, was great-grandfather of Waldave, Earl of Dunbar which title was forfeited in 1435 by George eleventh earl," &c.

My object is not to put forward my own opinion, but to call in the aid of others to rectify what seems like a succession of mistakes

1. Was Dolphin the eldest son ?
2. Was Cospatrick the youngest?

3. Were they not "called Earls" (the descendants of C.), and as good titles as any other earls; nay more, as kings of Northumbria, were they not, previously to their exile, of superior rank?

4. Were not these Earls of Dunbar, at that early period, what the Douglases afterwards became?

5. Was not the royal House of Stuart descended from "Alan the Steward" of the then Earl of Dunbar?

6. Did George, eleventh Earl of Dunbar, really forfeit his title, and was it not rather unjustly taken from him, and the inferior one of Earl of Buchan (which he refused to accept) offered in exchange ?

Setting aside Drummond's Noble Families, there is a pedigree of this Northumbrian family in a work generally admitted to be comparatively accurate-I allude to Surtees' Durham, and Lord Kame's well-known Essay on a cognate subject

[blocks in formation]

PASSAGE IN "DON JUAN."-What is the meaning of the passage within a parenthesis in the following lines from Don Juan, canto vii. stanza 5?"Newton (that proverb of the mind), alas!

[ocr errors]

Declared with all his grand discoveries recent, That he himself felt only like a youth Picking up shells by the great ocean, Truth." JAYDEE. PERMANENT COLOURS. It is as easy for a painter to put good colours on his canvass as bad, if he has them. It is satisfactory for a painter who expends a deal of time and trouble upon a large subject, especially if it be of a historical nature, to feel that his work will last. There is no doubt that in many of the old paintings, executed by most of the greatest names of past ages, some of the colours have blackened by time, some have altered, and some have faded out. Warned by these changes, modern artists and modern chemists have more or less turned their attention to the discovery of new pigments which it is hoped shall be of a more permanent nature. As I am only an amateur, I have not advanced to the higher walks of artistic knowledge; but my present object is directed rather to the chemistry of colours than to their manual application to canvass. All the yellows made of that cheap and common but beautiful substance, chrome, I believe are very evanescent. I should like to know what yellow was used by the ancients. Cadmium yellow, strontian yellow, and one or two others, are vaunted in the present day; but what do chemists and the best painters think of their permanency? Perhaps it may be said that sufficient time has not yet elapsed to have enabled artists to judge and decide on this particular subject, and that nothing but a long space of time can settle it. I dare say I am an unreasonable and an impatient fellow, but I cannot wait till our great-grandchildren have given their opinion.

Pink, or lake, is another transitory colour. This is rather an important one, as it is a component part of the purples and grays. What is the best recommended at the present time to stand, without waiting for our great-grandchildren? A year or so ago, I recollect that some correspondent of "N. & Q.," who was amusing himself with illuminating, made some inquiry on the subject of a brilliant scarlet. My own object just now is the heraldic decoration of the panels of a flat Gothic ceiling, where a good scarlet is a necessary colour. I think that DR. HUSENBETH recommended a particular scarlet, on the assurance of his own personal experience. If this article should meet his eye, would he mind repeating the name of that particular scarlet, as I have not got a file of "N. & Q." by me ?* There is a pigment in powder known in the trade as 66 pure scarlet," some of which I have obtained, and its appearance is very good. Can this be the same as that recommended by the learned D.D.? P. HUTCHINSON.

A PHILOSOPHIC BRUTE.—What Greek author gives this designation, and to what brute?

B. J. T.

POEM CONCERNING ST. SEPULCHRE'S, LONDON.-Perhaps some of the numerous readers of "N. & Q." might be able to inform me where I shall find a poem concerning the above church, respecting a culprit repeating over the acts of injustice of the law which brought her to crime. I think it is entitled "Legends of St. Sepulchre," and part of the poem runs someway thus:

"England robbed me of my son,

I robbed enough to save my life.
And for this I hung and for
This I swung," &c. &c. &c.
The author's name also will oblige

Dublin Friends Institute.

CHARLES JAS. HILL.

[blocks in formation]

is, of the former 1837, of the latter 1838. I remember, when they came out, they were commonly attributed to the then young author of Pickwick; but as they have never, I think, been included by Mr. Dickens in his collected Works, I suppose common belief was incorrect. Perhaps some of your readers can answer my question.

C. T. B. ROYAL CHRISTIAN NAMES. The Times of July 29 announced the baptism of the daughter of the Prince of Teck, who received eight Christian names. When did the custom of giving so many names to royal children come into vogue? In Spain the absurdity is carried to a greater height than in any other country. In Germany six or eight names are commonly given; but four is the largest number hitherto bestowed upon the infants of our royal family. Private persons often give several baptismal names to their children; but of these one or two are generally surnames, for the purpose of marking the connection with the mother's or paternal grandmother's family. As princes are not known by their surnames, can any reason of a similar character be assigned for giving a string of ordinary Christian names to royal children? At the marriage of princes and princesses who rejoice in many names, is it usual (as in the case of private persons with only two or three names) for the officiating clergyman to pronounce them all at the appointed places in the

service?

H. P. D.

[blocks in formation]

SCOTISH PEERS: EGLINTON EARLDOM. - In looking carefully over the Articles of Union, I have been unable to find any clause annulling or superseding the previously existing jurisdiction of the Court of Session in questions of Scotish peerages. I have been told that, during the discussion which preceded the framing of these articles, it was proposed to introduce a clause transferring the jurisdiction in such matters to the future House of Peers of Great Britain; but this idea was abandoned in the apprehension that such an attempt would have led to the breaking off of the Union altogether. Thus the Court of Session remained untouched, and retained precisely the same jurisdiction it possessed before the union of the two crowns. This is distinctly proved by the clause relative to the College of Justice.

[A short account of Samuel Smith is given in "N. & Q." 3rd S. iv. 501.-ED.]

It is not generally known that James VI., about a century before, had made an attempt to tamper with the laws of his country in relation to the Earldom of Eglinton, which had originally belonged to the family of Montgomery; but which the last heir male had transferred by a territorial charter to his cousin, a Seton-who took the name of Montgomery, and assumed the earldom upon the death of his relative.

James, who had begun to relish the English fashion of patents, took umbrage at this, and in

sisted that the new earl should abandon his

peerage. This he boldly but respectfully refused Council to take the refractory nobleman to task. to do, whereupon the monarch desired the Privy After giving the matter their deliberate consideration, the members unanimously refused to interfere, as they had no jurisdiction; and said that, if his majesty wished to take further steps, he however he did not venture to do; and it is under must proceed before the Court of Session, which the Seton Montgomeries now hold the peerage. the original charter, infeftment and retour, that The books of the Privy Council, and the protest of the earl, distinctly prove the above statement.,

What I am desirous of knowing, is, at what time was any statute passed in the British Parliament removing the original jurisdiction in such question of the Court of Session to the House of Lords ?-for I have not been able to find any one.

[ocr errors]

J. M.

SHENSTONE'S INN VERSES.—The verses beginning-"To thee, fair Freedom, I retire are stated, in the collection of Shenstone's poems, to bave been "written in an inn at Henley-onThames." They are inscribed on the centre pane of the second row (from the bottom) of a room on the first floor of the Red Lion-the large old inn by the church at Henley. But is this copy of the verses in Shenstone's handwriting? Many a pane of glass has endured more than a hundred years, but the chances against a pane in the window of a much frequented hotel are heavy. Comparison with a letter of Shenstone's would nearly settle the question.

ABRAHAM DE REMENHAM.

VENT. Narrow roads are called vents in some parts of Kent. Thus, at Ightham, Seven Vents is the name of a spot where seven roads meet. Huntington, S. S. in his Kingdom of Heaven taken by Prayer, tells us of " a place called the Four Wents, where four roads or ways meet," near Cranbrook. Is this word vent one of the "Holmesdale provincialisms," or is it common in other counties? Huntington gives a new rendering of the Weald of Kent. In many parts of his book from which I have quoted, he calls it the Wild of Kent-a name perhaps not inappropriate to this wooded and remote tract of the county.

EDWARD J. WOOD.

« ElőzőTovább »