LONDON, SATURDAY, JULY 3, 1875. CONTENTS. - N° 79. Registers of the Church of Scotland from 1560 to 1616, presented them, in 1737, to the library of Sion College, London Wall, under such conditions as might effectually prevent them from becoming the property of the Kirk of Scotland. "Disregarding the opinion of the legal advisers, who declared that the deed of gift prevented their being parted with, the Committee of the House of Commons, in its omnipotence, insisted on their being produced, and on the 5th of May, 1834, they were laid on the table of QUERIES:-Library of Augustine Friars at Naples-Graves- the Committee. It does not appear that the production end and Milton-Báb-ul-Mandab-Old MSS.-Statutes and thus unjustly compelled furthered the slightest end of Ordinances of the Long Parliament and Cromwell-Alexander the pig-headed (sic) Committee, but it was fatal to the Davison, St. James's Square-The Australian Wattle-Tree-Records. Bird's-Eye View of Imperial Rome, 7-Peter or St. PeterZaphnath-paaneah-T. Tucke: Curtis-The Bishops' or Prayer-Book Version of the Psalms-R. E. "medicum insignem”—“Quis cætera nescit?"-The Late M. LévyGerman (Children's) Stories-"Religio Clerici," 8-Bishop Atterbury-Superstition about Soap-Daniel Defoe, 9. REPLIES:-Bedca: Bedford, 9-Rev. Dr. Phanuel BaconThe Holy Roman Empire, 11-"Beautiful Snow," 12-The Counts of Lancastro: Foreign Titles of Nobility, 13-Princes and Princesses-Knighthood-Arms of the Scottish SeesTravels of Josephus Indus, 14-Illustrators of Popular Works-Petrarca-" A Defence of Priestes Mariages"— "Ard-na-murchan"-R. W. Buss, 15-Dr. Martin ListerBishop Hall's "Satires"-Albericus Gentilis-"Conversation" Sharpe-St. Abb, 16-"Jaws of Death"- Early Printing in Lancashire-Walking on the Water-"All Lombard Street to a China orange "-Portraits of ErasmusLiterary Labour and its Reward, 17-Richardsons of Hull and Sherriff Hutton-Milton's "rathe primrose"-Unsettled Baronetcies-Upping Steps or Stocks-Queen Elizabeth or Dr. Donne? 18. Notes on Books, &c. Audubon, J. J. His library of works on natural history was destroyed by a fire, which broke out, after his death, in the house of a female relative in America. A fire broke out (in 1716) in Spring Gardens, by Charing Cross, London, and burnt down the chapel and the library belonging to it. Dr. Roxburgh made large collections of plants in the Carnatic, but had the misfortune to lose them all, with his books and papers, in an inundation. All the ancient records of the Commissary or Consistorial Court of the County of Aberdeen perished by a lamentable fire on the 30th of October, 1721. "Alas!" writes a contemporary witness (the Tom Hearne of his day), "what can supply the grievous hurt which the gentle lovers of antiquity sustained in the destruction of a treasure so inestimable, so rich in illustrations of genealogy, ecclesiastical history, biography, old manners, forgotten usages, and scandal-fascinating scandaldelightful, although obsolete, and only then innocent?" The Hon. Archibald Campbell, chosen Bishop of Aberdeen in 1721, having obtained possession of the original They were consumed in the fire which destroyed the Houses of Parliament on the 16th of October, 1834." It ought to be mentioned that the Governors of Sion College, recollecting the obligations they were under, expressed a hope "that the Committee would not compel them to part with the custody of the MSS. in express violation of their trust." The remonstrance was in vain. See The Book of Bon Accord, a Guide to the City of Aberdeen, said to be written by the late eminent antiquary, Dr. Robertson, of the Record Office, Edinburgh. 1731; removed to the British Museum in 1753. Many of The destruction of books by the Great Fire of London was immense. The works of Sir William Dugdale and Sir H. Spelman's Glossary and Councills suffered greatly, but the chief victims were the booksellers in St. Paul's Churchyard. The greater part of the folio Shakspeare of 1644 was also destroyed, and consequently copies of it are very scarce. Some papers also of Hor rocks, the young astronomer, are said to have been lost many years in collecting books printed in London in the in the fire. The late Dr. Bliss was very assiduous for three years immediately preceding the Great Fire, in which many of the copies are presumed to have been destroyed; and a list of these books is contained in the catalogue of the second and remaining portion of Dr. Bliss's library, which was sold by auction by Messrs. S. Leigh Sotheby & John Wilkinson, in August, 1858. There is also a list of works relating to the Plague (all printed in 1665) and to the Great Fire. The destruction of the library of the city of Strasburg, during its bombardment, is so recent as a melancholy instance, that little need be said about it, except to rejoice in the generous efforts everywhere made to repair the loss as far as possible. Some particulars regarding the losses then sustained will be found in "N. & Q." for Sept., Oct., Nov., 1870, by the present writer and others. The destruction of books and MSS. during the Reign of Terror was incalculable, not only in Paris, but in the provinces, and is a lesson for all time,-a lesson which the prophetic insight of Burke read to all the world who would listen to him. Houses of Parliament, in 1834, destroyed also great part The fire (elsewhere alluded to) which consumed the of the library; but a curious collection of historical and political pamphlets, from the reign of Elizabeth to George II., was partly saved, with the books and documents that could be got at in the intense excitement that then prevailed. In a review of Grant's Central Provinces of India (in the Edinburgh Review for Jan., 1872), it is said, that "in 1862 the Indian navy ceased to exist; and previously, in 1860, the materials for its complete history were destroyed at the India House." Query, why destroyed, by what means, by whom? Was it a fire? J. MACRAY. FRENCH VANITY. The French have often been most unjustly reprouched with personal vanity; for it is precisely the warmth with which they express their admiration of that which pleases them in other people, or in themselves, that renders them such agreeable companions. An amusing instance of this is to be found in the description of herself by Madame de Bregy. She was one of the "beaux esprits" at the French Court early in the latter half of the seventeenth century; and I will endeavour, in translating her letter, to do "la Comtesse" as full justice as she did herself. She says : "However closely I may adhere to truth in forming this picture, and whatever care I may take that the fidelity which a copy owes to its original be accurately maintained, I do not pretend to avoid the criticisms of those who may examine it. I shall, nevertheless, always remain satisfied with the agreeable impression which it has produced upon myself; since, if my enemies might represent me as having more faults, my friends might depict me as possessing more charms. Thus, as this portrait might have been produced by an impartial hand, I can without shame admit that it is mine, and that it is from myself you will learn the good and the evil which are to be found in it. "My person is of those which may be said to be rather large than small. My figure is of the best proportioned; and there is in it a certain fascinating and easy carriage which has always convinced me that I was one of the most beautiful figures of my size. My hair is brown, and my complexion clear-brown, but very agreeable. The form of my face is oval, all the features are regular; my eyes are fine, and of such a mixture of colours as renders them very brilliant; my nose is of a pleasing shape; the mouth is not of the smallest, but it is agreeable both by its shape and colour; and as to the teeth, they are as white and regular as the finest teeth in the world could be. My bosom is handsome, and the arms and hands can be shown without shame. All this is accompanied by a lively and refined air, and my looking-glass has often made me believe that it showed me a thing which was well worth all I could see elsewhere. I appear as young as any one, although there are many persons who are more so than I am. Behold, as nearly as may be, my outward form. As to my mind, I imagine that others can judge of it better than I can myself, because there is no mirror in which it can be seen faithfully represented. Nevertheless, it seems to me that there is an intimate connexion between my mind and my body. I believe that the former is delicate and penetrating, and even tolerably solid; for reason, wherever I find it, has more power over me than any other authority. My natural intelligence is well fitted to judge correctly of things, although I have not acquired any; and I am so little able to use the riches of others, that my own sense is of more service to me than the rules of art, so that I must adhere to that which was born with me. Notwithstanding this, I have heard it said—without having ever believed it that the hours spent in conversation with me are passed at least as quickly as those with any other person, and that, in what is serious, my opinions were not bad to adopt. am "As regards my disposition-with which I ought to finish to make myself known-I will say, with sincerity, as I have done of the rest, what I think of it. I love praise too much; and it is that which has caused me to repay it with usury to those from whom I have received it. My heart is proud and disdainful; yet I do not cease in opinion from anybody; yet it is no less true that into appear mild or to be polite. I never differ openly teriorly I seldom adopt theirs in prejudice to my own. I can say, with truth, that I was born prudent and modest, and that pride always takes care to maintain in me those two good qualities. I am idle, and I am very vain; and these faults produce others in me, for they are the cause that I seldom flatter any person or make advances to them, so that, for fear of doing too much in that respect, I often do not do enough. This is also the reason why I do not even seek pleasure or diversion; yet, when others take more trouble than I do to procure them for me, I feel indebted to them, and I appear very gay, although in reality I am not too much So. I take great pains never to offend anybody unless they oblige me to do so by an offensive proceeding. And although I can, perhaps, give an agreeable turn to raillery, no one ever hears me do it. I have taken an aversion to ridicule, because I find that people begin it with their enemies and finish it with their best friends. Although I do not possess a mind given to intrigue, if I embarked in an undertaking I think I could carry it out with some tact. I am persevering even to obstinacy, and guarded even to excess; and, in that which going to say, I confess myself to be one of the most unjust persons in the world—namely, in wishing harm to those who do not do that which I wish, and in not being able to decide upon making them know it. In order to become intimate with me, it is necessary to make all the advances; but I repay well that trouble by what follows, for I serve my friends with all the ardour which it is usual to display only for our own interests. I praise them, I defend them, without ever admitting anything which is against them; and thus being to them more faithful than flattering, I often serve them better than they themselves see how much I love them. Time, which almost always effaces the impressions produced by things, only engraves them more deeply in my memory. I am not covetous, but also I am not a dupe; and although I do not choose my friends because they may be useful to me, if fortune places them in a position to become so, and they are not, I cease to love them, because they do not deserve it. I am not sufficiently virtuous to be devoid of a desire for wealth and honours, but I am too much so to follow some of the roads that lead to them. I act in the world according to what it ought to be, too little in acccordance with what it is, and I blame myself for wishing to have the advantages which are found in it, and not employing the means by which they are procured. To tell the truth, I am neither so good nor so bad as it would be useful to me to be. I am not devout; but all my life I have been eager to become so, and, not having been able to render myself more so, I await the result. I am very sensible of the merit of others, and, by the way, I may, perhaps, have too good an opinion of my own; yet my presumption affects rather my mind than my heart. I am too long in deciding, but, when I have done so, it is very difficult to make me abandon what I have chosen. I am of all persons in the world the one who adheres the most religiously to that which I have once promised, and who endures with most impatience the which ornaments it the most." None but a Frenchwoman could have drawn such a charming, and probably true, portrait of herself. Ashford, Kent. RALPH N. JAMES. SHAKSPEARIANA. against the villain who had poisoned the ear of Leontes, and, from the way in which damned in the previous clause, " who will be damned for it," acts as a catchword to land-damn (landan) in the following one, it is probable that the name of the custom suggested to Shakspeare's mind the same explanation as that adopted by THORNCLIFFE, VIZ., the notion of "damning throughout the land, so that everybody might know the villain, and treat him accordingly." It is unfortunate that THORNCLIFFE concluded his note with this unsatisfactory piece of etymology, which tends to divert attention from the effective soundness of his explanation of the passage. It is hardly doubtful that landan, like randan or rantan, is a mere representation of continued noise. "Randan, a noise or uproar (Gloucester)."-Halliwell. "Landan, lantan, rantan, are used by some Gloucestershire people in the sense of scouring or rating severely."-Dean Milles's MS. Glossary in correcting to some purpose, and also of rattling or Halliwell. The true formation of the word is seen in the French rantanplan, used, like our rubadub, for the beating of a drum. H. WEDGWOOD. Swiss Landamman with the Latin damnare. In point of fact I did not; but, if I did, why not? But suppose I were to connect Landamman with the German Verdammen, meaning to judge, to condemn, to damn; and suppose I were further to connect together verdammen, landamman, damn, and damnare, why not? I beg to say to MR. SKEAT that I have no superstitious veneration for Germans, and I do not blindly accept what they may say any more than what a Frenchman may say. Englishmen differ about the derivation of English words; do Germans infallibly MR. SKEAT assumes that I connected the “LAND-DAMN” (5th S. iii. 303, 383, 464.)-MR. SKEAT is, perhaps, too thorough-going in his condemnation of guessing; for how could any emendation be accomplished without it? or where can the line be drawn between well-founded guessing and rationali conviction? No doubt there are many guesses in "N. & Q." which do little credit to the judgment of their authors, who might often with advantage lend an ear to MR. SKEAT'S exhortations to consult the ordinary sources of information, before offering for publication their own crude suggestions on the subject. But, after all, much of the great popularity of "N. & "know the truth? arises from the variety of speculation it offers to its readers on all sorts of subjects; and, in the very number in which MR. SKEAT declares his belief in the uselessness of guessing at the meaning of land-damn, appears an explanation of the term which was before enounced by Halliwell in his Dictionary, and now, supported by the information adduced by THORNCLIFFE, to me, at least, carries complete conviction. The name of landan, we are told, was given in the Midland counties to a charivari of rough music by which country people were accustomed, as late as forty years ago, to express their indignation against some social crime, such as slander or adultery, which was not likely to meet with its deserts from the arm of the law. "When any slanderer was detected, or any parties discovered in adultery, it was usual to landan them. This was done by the rustics traversing from house to house along the country side, blowing trumpets and beating drums or pans and kettles." In the passage before us, Antigonus uses the figure of landanning to express his indignation The question with me, after anything is said by any one-be he Scotch, English, Irish, German, or French-is, Is it true? And as to the derivation of these words, verdammen, landamman, damn, and damnare, I may remark that I may, perhaps, by dint of study, have seen, and see, something that neither MR. SKEAT nor his German friends see. But, perhaps, accordholds a Scotchman to be, and that he can only be, ing to the philological cant of the day, MR. SKEAT entirely different opinion. And on the point in issue, nothing compared with a German. I am of an I would ask whether, considering the cognate words above referred to, amman is not = damman, in the same way as the ancient English word eme was MR. SKEAT will bear in mind, with reference to = deme or deem, the d being dropt in both cases? his phrase "extraordinary suggestions," that it has passed into a proverb that "truth is strangestranger than fiction." THORNCLIFFE'S note is interesting, and points, as it seems to me, in the same direction as my explanation. Our forefathers (and, I am sure, all other sensible persons) never approved of mob law, and I think it more than likely that the custom he refers to had originated under the authority of a judge. HENRY KILGour. Sir Walter Scott, in Peveril of the Peak, chapter xlii., gives a derivation of the word lambe beat, kill. Sir Geoffrey Peveril and his son, after their acquittal at Westminster for complicity in the Popish plot, on their way from the hall to their lodging, are beset by a violent mob, "and the word began to pass among the more desperate, 'Lambe them, lads; lambe them!'-a cant phrase of the time, derived from the fate of Dr. Lambe, an astrologer and quack, who was knocked on the head by the rabble in Charles I.'s time." H. A. KENNEDY. Waterloo Lodge, Reading. The following is another example of the word lam, to beat. It seems to be intended for an Americanism. The extract is from an old song entitled "Bow, wow, wow," "as sung by Mr. Hooke at the Anacreontic Society." The allusion is to one Trimmer Hal, who seems to have been a friend of Billy Pitt and Daddy Jenky :"This Harry was always a staunch friend to Boston, His bowels are soft, for they yearned for Indostan; If I had him in our township I'd feather him and tar him, With forty lacking one, too, I'd lam him and I'd scar him." Is this song, with its allusions to Boston, well known? Belfast. W. H. PATTERSON. springing afresh, of sweet and bitter love-thoughts, a crop in repute for quick and thick growth; the self-sown of the moment, and perplexing its botanist with variety novel without ending. "To chew the cud," for "to revolve in the even idiomatic to the speech of the country. The mind," is a figure that might, I conceive, be termed illustrative criticism of the text under dispute asks instances of the "chewing" without the "cud." For a start, Shakspeare enriches us with one high in place (Julius Cæsar, Act i. sc. 2). Cassius has moved Brutus towards conspiring against Cæsar, and Brutus, having promised a time for giving him a determinate answer, goes on : "Till then, my noble friend, chew upon this: Than to repute himself a son of Rome, Brutus here supplied to Cassius fresh food for chewing. How at home the metaphor is in the English mind is shown in the curious fact that the oral tradition of our educated society has usurped possession of the verse, turning "food" into "cud." Engage ten persons of literary cultivation with the elder brother's disclosure of the younger's reverie, and, if the world is as it was, nine will, I expect, pledge their scholarship to that reading of this not read. With a step back into the world as it text which, on the page of Shakspeare, they have was, you have wonderfully Sir Walter Scott in example. Look to the place referred to by S. T. P. in the Introduction to Quentin Durward, where the author, unless my memory greatly deceives me, deliberately alleges "cud" for the universal reading of the books more than a generation ere one of them had it. See also Measure for Measure, Act ii. sc. 4, 1. 4, and Henry V., Act ii. sc. 2, 1. 56. EREM. ST. AUGUSTINE AND SOPHOCLES.-If St. Augustine had not the following passage of Sophocles in his mind, when writing thus to St. Jerome, the parallel is very striking: "Ne de vobis ea conscribendo spargatis, quæ quandoque concordantes delere non poteritis, qui nunc concordare nolitis; aut quæ concordes legere timeatis, ne iterum litigetis." each other which, should a reconciliation come -"Do not write and publish such things against about, you, who now do not desire it, may be unable to cancel or recall, or which you will afterwards be afraid to read-having made up your quarrel-lest they should provoke a renewal of it.” Sophocles makes Ajax say: ἔγωγ' ἐπίσταμαι γὰρ ἀρτίως, ὅτι Ajax, 11. 678-680. |