us some of the explanations which have been hazarded regarding the meaning of this mysterious allusion. After much groping in the darkness of the chimney, I can only conjecture that Sir Thomas Johns may have been a farmer of the hearth tax, and that he gave one year's profits from the collection of that impost for the purpose of building a porch at Beaupré. I confess that to derive "chimney tunnes" from "hearth tax" is almost as roundabout an etymology as to trace "King Jeremiah" from "cucumber.' I can only humbly plead that "tunnes" may have had something to do with "tonnage and poundage."

G. A. SALA.

If Beaupré church possesses any chimes, I have no doubt this is meant to express them, i. e. the chimney tunes, the writer having no idea of a tall building beyond a chimney. W. 1. The "Chymnye Tunnes" in the Beaupré inscription, are nothing more than the tunnels to convey the smoke from the chimney, &c., according to ancient usage, from the fireplace. The restriction of the word to the shaft of the chimney, being comparatively modern. Parker's admirable Glossary of Architecture supplies an abundance of examples of this use of the word chimney. One from Leland's Itinerary, of the early part of the sixteenth century, may be quoted as specially apposite. It shows that chimneys, in the modern sense, were novelties at that time; and is an authority of the use of the word tun or tunnel, as in the Beaupré inscription:

:

"One thing I much noted in the Haulle of Bolton, how chimeneys were conveyed by tunnels made on the syds of the Wauls betwixt the Lights in the Haull, and by this means, and by no Lovers, is the smoke of the Harthe in the Hawle wonder strangly convayed."- Leland, Itin.,

vol. viii. fol. 66. b.

elaborately carved ecclesiastical chair, said by tradition to have been that on which Mary Queen of Scots sat, in the banquet hall of Fotheringhay, previcus to her execution, though only "a low stool" is mentioned in the contemporary accounts, and Gough mentions this chair as having belonged to "an abbot of Peterborough." In the righthand spandrel of the back of the chair is the fulllength figure of the Virgin, with a crown on her head, long floating hair, and upraised hands, as though in the act of benediction. By her side is an ornamented pot containing a lily with fire blossoms. CUTHBERT BEDE

"SOBRIA VIDET EQUIS": OVID (4th S. viii. 82, 174.)-What might be the correct translation of Ovid's words did not concern me, and it is, I think, from mingling this with the real question that C. S. and 311, have failed to see why I held rise to be the equivalent of non sobria. Perhaps, too, in my desire to be brief I became obscure, and ought to have set forth my premises as well as my conclusion. This I now do. The question before me was, how did Marlow interpret Ovid to himself and us? A master of clear English, and a writer who can in no sense be called obscure, he, in words which will bear but the one construction, makes Ovid say, that the old hag Drouthy never saw the sun rise.

"Her name comes from the thing; she, being wise, Sees not the morn on rosy horses rise." The form of the sentence generally, and the choice of the words "being" and "wise," preclude any but this interpretation, that she did not rise with the sun, and that this was directly or indirectly due to her wisdom. But from the context it is clear that if she did not rise betimes it was because she was habitually drunk overnight. On the other hand, if "wise" be taken as equivalent to sobria, we make Marlow say the reverse of what he thought Ovid had said, and make him talk nonsense besides. Hence I was forced to this con

clusion, that Marlow's words require us to adopt Col. Cunningham's acute conjecture that "wise was a slang phrase for being drunk. And from that to this, that Marlow took the non, placed as it is in the forefront of the sentence, as qualifying the whole and each part of it. That is, as though in somewhat bald English it were, "Not, does she sober ever see," or, in better English, "She, not being sober, never sees." I neither saw then, nor can I see now, any other means of making Marlow say what he evidently intended to say. If, however, such means exist and have escaped me, my argument falls as helpless as did old Dipsas.

B. NICHOLSON.

JOHN DYER (4th S. vii. passim; viii. 99, 157, 178.)-It appears from these communications that your correspondents suppose Dyer to address his "Silent Nymph" with "thou," but it is neither

expressed nor understood. Another correspondent observes that the linnet does not sing, as the poet makes it, in the evening. He should read Goldsmith's History of Animated Nature. SILURIAN.

THE SERPENT ON CRESTS (4th S. viii. 167.)MR. BIRCH'S inference, from the circumstance of the cock and serpent frequently appearing together on crests, seems to be correct, when it is remembered that in some statues of Minerva the cock appears surmounting her helmet, while in others her shield displays the snake-adorned head of

Medusa.

Montfauçon gives an illustration of a statue representing the Goddess of Truth found in the ruins of the ancient temple of Montmorillon in Poictou (Supp. tom. ii. p. 221) :

"Two serpents twine round the feet of the goddess, and, curling upwards round her body, are embraced by both her hands, to show the inseparable union between wisdom and truth."

And so, in later times, as an heraldic device, the serpent, the emblem of subtle tact, is said to represent a person of a shrewd and politic disposi

tion.

Dorne, in a poetical epistle to his friend George Herbert, refers to his family crest (a sheaf of snakes), and says

"The serpent may, as wise, my pattern be; My poison, as he feeds on dust, that's me; And as he rounds the earth to murder, sure He is my death, but on the Cross my cure." Here the worthy dean evidently views the reptile with the mixed feelings of the theologian, while the herald would be more likely to regard it simply as a type of acuteness and an appropriate distinction for the man of whom it could be said, "Il conduit bien sa barque."

13, Kelly Street, Kentish Town.

WM. UNDERHILL.

CANVAS REPRESENTMENT (4th S. viii. 67, 153.) In further answer to the above query, allow me to add a few particulars relative to a very curious and, I believe, rather scarce etching, which repre

sents the violent death of the notorious Florentine Marshal d'Ancre. Concino Concini was born on the borders of the Arno, in lovely Florence, where his father Bartolomeo from a simple public notary became Counsellor of State. The son came to France in the suite of Mary of Medici, A.D. 1600, and through the intriguing influence of his wife, Leonora Galigai, who was lady's maid and favourite of the queen, he rose rapidly to the highest honours. After Henry IV.'s death, Concini purchased the Marquisate of Ancre. He became Governor of Normandy and Marshal of France without ever having drawn sword on a field of battle, at the same time Prime Minister to the young King Lewis XIII., over whom he exercised a most

tyrannical rule. His scandalous fortune and overbearing manners rendered him obnoxious to the nobility, and at last the king, who, though weak, had for a long time indignantly felt the foreigner's heavy yoke, at the instigation of his favourite D'Albert de Luynes, determined to get rid of him. A captain of the King's Guards, Nic. de L'Hospital de Vitry, an intimate friend of De Luynes, undertook the business; and on April 24, 1617, meeting Mal. D'Ancre in the court of the Louvre, called upon him in the name of the king to deliver inclined to show fight, Vitry had him shot on the his sword. The Italian refused, and, seeming spot like a dog.

up

In the print before me Concini is seen drawing his sword on Vitry's snatching his scarf, and some of the guards at that signal fired their pistols. To the left you see the palace, the king at a window (underneath which is written "Der Konig," which makes me suppose the etching to be German); and on the bridge Vitry, hat in hand, the deed; did'st thou not hear a noise?". In the addressing the king probably thus-"I've done murdered to the tune of "Vive l'Roy! vive background a house is set on fire; a man is being body hung up by the feet. It was afterwards 'Roy!" Higher up still we see the marshal's mutilated and cut to pieces. His wife was con

Idemned to death for witchcraft and executed. Their son was declared by parliament ignoble, and incapable of holding any state in the kingdom.

P. A. L.

MARRIAGES OF ENGLISH PRINCESSES (4th S. vii. passim; viii. 57, 152.)—I regret that I fell into the error of stating that Elizabeth of Lancaster was the daughter of Catherine Swinford, but I cannot with certainty give my authority, as I culled a mass of genealogical and heraldic notes some years since from a number of histories and old authorities; and I have to thank HERMENright. The authorities she quotes leave no doubt TRUDE-which I do most heartily-for setting me Of course I am fully aware that in a controversy in my mind as to the correctness of her assertion. with your fair correspondent it is the British Museum (4th S. viii. 136) all to nothing against JUNII NEPOS.

me.

him fall to a great depth, where he was dashed to pieces on the rocks below beside the river Eresma. It is said that the lady was executed by the king's order, and this is supposed to be signified in the sculpture on the child's monument representing an infant holding a sword in its hand. CUTHBERT Bede.

"GREAT GRIEFS ARE SILENT" (4th S. viii. 166, 195.)-Doubtless Seneca's line is the original of this sentiment, which is almost a commonplace with our old dramatists. See quotations on Macbeth (iv. 3) in Variorum Shakespeare (ed. 1821), xi. 234. My note-book contains many more, from which I choose one as being an exact translation of Seneca

"Small griefes can speake, the great astonisht stand." Misfortunes of Arthur, iv. 2, ed. Collier.

On the Macbeth passage

the grief, that does not speak Whispers the o'erfraught heart, and bids it break." Collier quotes from Florio's Montaigne

"All passions that may be tasted and digested are but mean and slight.

"Curæ leves loquuntur, ingentes stupent.

Rustington, near Littlehampton, Sussex. "ST." ABBREVIATED TO "T." (3rd S., 4th S. vii. passim; viii. 38, 133.)-In the parish of Clifford,

in the West of Herefordshire, a farmhouse, the name of which is St. Oswald's, is commonly known as "Tuswal." T. W. WEBB.

SURNAME OF DEXTER (4th S. viii. 106, 177.)In the church of Kintbury, near Hungerford, is a monument to a Lieutenant Christopher Dexter, who is described as of the county of Tipperary, Ireland. He was only connected with that neighbourhood by marriage. W. 1.

BRASS RELIC (4th S. viii. 183.)—I hope this relic will not turn out to be a forgery. It seems very odd that there should be a coat of arms in one part, and then inscriptions in Roman letters.

Ulting, Maldon.

JOHN PIGGOT, JUN., F.S.A.

NOTES FROM "THE GUARDIAN" (4th S. viii. 166.) - Do not LORD LYTTELTON's remarks on Steele's "slip-slop" English savour somewhat of what the elder Disraeli would call the "undue severity of criticism"? In my edition of The Guardian the first passage runs thus:

"There are four good mothers of whom are often born four unhappy daughters," &c.

And the second thus:

"Raillery is no longer agreeable than while the whole company is pleased with it."

I do not defend Steele's use of the word begets in the sense of breeds, although I think other

examples of its being so used might be adduced from contemporary writers; but he should not be made responsible for the errors of his printer. H. S. G.

P.S. Was No. 24 of The Guardian written by Steele ?

[It is attributed to Steele in Chambers's British Essayists.]

"The prevailing humour of crying up authors that have writ in the days of our forefathers, and of passing slightly over the merit of our contemporaries, is a grievcomplained of through all ages in their writings." ance that men of a free and unprejudiced thought have

LORD LYTTELTON should have prefixed the above (which he will find in No. 25 of The Guardian) by way of motto to his communication at the above reference. His delicate ear might have been offended with the phrase "authors that have writ," but it would perhaps have in some sort excused him for the bold assertion that Steele was very unworthy of his fame."

66

In the first passage quoted by LORD LYTTELTON, Steele wrote thus:

There are four good mothers, of whom are often born four unhappy daughters," &c.

And the second runs thus:

"Raillery is no longer agreeable than while the whole company is pleased with it."

But that The Guardian in which this last passage LYTTELTON's assertion. His Lordship's objection occurs was written by Steele we have only LORD

to the use by Steele of the word "begets in the sense of "breeds is more valid. But was not Steele's contemporaries? To modern ears it is the word frequently used in such a sense by inelegant and indeed wholly unjustifiable, and I am not prepared to vindicate Sir Richard from this charge; but I still think LORD LYTTELTON should have satisfied himself that his copy of The Guardian was accurately printed before he rushed into print, and accused Steele of writing "slipslop.' Let me address him in the words of Shakespeare

"If to have done the thing you had in charge
Beget you happiness, be happy then;

For it is done.'

sible.

But the elder branch does fail in the male line; now, if Smyth of Barnes can serve himself heirmale to Smyth of Teddington, and take the estates either as heir-at-law or by bequest, there is no question; if not, the unwarrantable assumption of these bearings would be false heraldry. A. H.

"To BERKELEY EVERY VIRTUE UNDER HEAVEN" (4th S. viii. 47, 156.)-Since my query at p. 47 I have found the passage quoted by Aristotle is taken from Θεογνίδος τοῦ Μεγαρεῶς Γνῶμαι, ν. 147. Βούλει δ' εὐσεβέων ὀλίγοις σὺν χρήμασιν οἰκεῖν, ἢ πλουτεῖν, ἀδίκως χρήματα πασάμενος. ἐν δὲ δικαιοσύνῃ συλλήβδην πᾶσ ̓ ἀρετή στι πᾶς δέ τ' ἀνὴρ ἀγαθὸς, Κύρνε, δίκαιος ἐών.

Poeta Min. Græci, Gaisford, vol. i. p. 217. The character of Berkeley seems to agree in every particular with the recommendation laid down in these lines. The passage is also quoted in his Ethic., v. i. Vid. edit. Oxonii, 1716, p. 196. Cork.

UGO FOSCOLO (4th S. viii. 107.)—

R. C.

"This learned and eccentric Italian, who resided in the next house to Dr. Collyer, late Bohemia House, at Turnham Green, died in Sept. 1827, and was buried in Chiswick churchyard." (Faulkner's Brentford, Ealing, and Chiswick, 1845, p. 4€8.)

The epitaph as given in Faulkner, p. 339, is

incorrect.

Andover.

SAMUEL SHAW.

EARTH THROWN UPON THE COFFIN (4th S. viii. 107, 169.)-Some years ago, when an episcopal clergyman in Aberdeen, I recollect at funerals it

used to be the custom for the nearest relatives of the deceased to lower the body into the grave, and wait by the side until the grave was filled up. The custom used to remind me of the affecting scene in the fine novel of The Antiquary, where Saunders Mucklebackit refuses to permit Oldbuck to perform this office at the grave of his son, insisting upon discharging the painful duty with JOHN PICKFORD, M.A.

his own hands.

Hungate, Pickering.

SURVEY OF CROWN LANDS, temp. 1649 (4th S. viii. 167.)-I think I am in a position to state pretty positively that the Parliamentary surveys of crown lands have never been published.

K. P. D. E. REV. T. A. W. BUCKLEY (4th S. vii. 534.)-I had a slight acquaintance with this gifted gentle

man, who told me that the following anonymous works were written by him :

Mr. Sydenham Greenfinch in London (Routledge, 1854); Mr. Horace Fitzjersey's Collegiate Experiences, published in Sharpe's London Magazine, vol. ii. New Series, edited by Mrs. S. C. Hall.

in the list of Mr. Buckley's "edited or translated” It is possible that the above are not included works given in the Gentleman's Magazine. CUTHBERT BEDE.

LONDON COFFEE HOUSES (4th S. vii. 5.)-I am surprised that W. C. should not have recognised Mr. John Ellis as the individual of whom Johnson once observed to Boswell—

"It is wonderful, sir, what is to be found in London. The most literary conversation that I ever enjoyed was at the table of Jack Ellis, a money scrivener, behind the Royal Exchange, with whom I at one period used to dine generally once a week."-Croker's Boswell, one-vol. ed. p. 501.

Boswell afterwards hunted him up, evidently for materials for the magnum opus, and adds in a

NAPOLEON III. (4th S. vii. 405.)—I have before me this neat little volume-Sac de Rome, écrit en 1527 par Jacques Buonaparte, "traduction élégante et facile," as said Mr. J. A. BUCHON in his very curious letter (4th S. vii. 405.) It is enriched with portraits, twenty in number, of the various important personages therein mentioned, without omitting Benvenuto Cellini, who pretends in his Memoirs that it was he who from Fort S. Angelo shot the Constable de Bourbon. This translation appeared in 1830, at Florence, where then resided the amiable and accomplished young prince, who married his cousin, the witty and spirited Princess was doomed to die at Forli a year later. He had Charlotte (daughter of Joseph Bonaparte), to whose sister Zenaïde B., Princess of Musignano, this work is dedicated. In a work entitled DocuLouis Bonaparte, who for a time was king of Holmens historiques sur la Hollande, by his father land, will be found, vol. i. p. 303, some interesting details on the origin of the Bonapartes.

P. A. L.