A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION FOR LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC. Replies to Minor Queries: - The Irvingites Blifil and Black George-The Oak of Reformation - Funeral Custom-Erethenus, the River-Hovellers-Mémoires d'un Homme d'Etat - Uncertain Etymologies -Father Petre Shakspeare Emendations: "I am put to know "The Redbreast-Lady-day in Harvest Dr. Robert Clavering Bishops' Marriages Mistletoe-Wife of Stanislaus Augustus II. of Poland Sending to Coventry-Highlands and LowlandsAdmiral Vernon-Ancient Dutch Allegorical PictureWit referred to by Coleridge-Ireland's Freedom from Reptiles - Don of Pitfichie, Monymuk, Aberdeenshire Tumble-down Dick-Rhyming Rats to Death -Exterior Stoups-Christopher Harvie, Author of the Synagogue," ," "School of the Heart," &c. - Trafalgar Arms of Robertson Portrait of Collins Churchill's Death-Imperfections in Books-Friday at Sea-Bishop Juxon's Account of Vendible Books in England "Thirty days hath September," &c.-Lease for Ninety-nine Years, &c. 66 MISCELLANEOUS : Notes on Books, &c. Books and Odd Volumes wanted Notices to Correspondents Advertisements VOL. VI.-No. 164. Page 575 575 576 577 577 579 580 582 582 583 584 585 585 586 Notes. THE TOWNSHEND MSS. The following extracts I take from a MS. notebook in my possession, written by one Henry Townshend, Esq., of Elmley Lovatt, co. Worc.). The book (which is a thick octavo of some 500 pages) is bound up and interleaved with The Compleat Justice (1661), and the MSS. vary in date from 1638 to 1683-4. I have carefully selected those that appear of the greatest histrionic or antiquarian value: "At Lent Assiz. Worc. 8° Marc. 1660, one Vrsula Corbett condemned to be burnt and exer done for poysoning her husband. So at Lent Assiz. 1661, another wooman burnt for stabbing her husband." (MS. leaf to face p. 195.) "One Ch. Chapman hangd at Worc. 20° Marc. 1640, for only breaking a hole in the wall of the howse, and putting his arm in to open the doore, and toke nothing out, of Ant Artin's house in Elmley Lovatt." (MS. leaf to face p. 38.) "One Eliz. Mayney being imprisoned for mur587 thering her bastard childe, and one Wm. Shipman for felony, they both brok prison. And being retaken: being indited for murther, and anothr bill for breaking of prison, was acquitt of the murther and founde guilty of breach of prison: and because she was found guilty by Comon Law and not of felony by Statut, she had iudgmt of death and exerc pformed. At Lent Assiz. 11° Mar. 1662, before Sr. Rob. Hyde. As for Shipman, he should have had his booke, but being willing to be transported, was resptd." (MS. to face p. 230.) 3. Bind a witch with her armes close pinioned, and her legges wth her cloths together, and throw her in water: and she will not sink, as was attested vpon seuerall woomen at Worc. Assizes, 1660." "One Joan Bibb, of Rushock, in Worcshr, was tyed, and throwen into a poole, as a witch, to see whether she could swimm. And she did bring her actn agst Mr. Shaw, the parson, and recouered 10lb damadges. 8° Marc. 1660. "Mem. I compounded for (her) and others wth Mr. Shaw, and gaue them 201b for costes and damadges by way of referense (query, recompense?) or both pts to me and both ptys contented." (MS. to face p. 363.) "8° Jan. 1660, Worc. Vpon petion of the Grand Jury, yt was consented to by the Court, and so ordered: That ther shalbe no order of Court at Sessions, or act of Sessions, by Justices, for churchw. and ouerseers of poore to finde house or house-roome for any lusty yong married people, but to finde houses for themselves at ther will. And at Assizes, 8° Marc. 1660, upon the like peticn Sr. Rob. Hyde one of the Judgs s, that yf yong men marry together befor they haue howsis, ther is no law to enforc. chw. and O. by the Justices to find howses, but yf they cañot get any, let them lye vnder an oke." (MS. leaf to face p. 220.) "Mem. I being a Justice of Peace in the yeare 1638, did cause Trinity Sessions (then so called) to be kept according to 2 H. V. 4., on the Tuesday after ye week of Translacon of St. Thomas, not as vsually, Tuesday after Trinity Sunday." (MS. leaf to face p. 289.) "Mem". After the happy restaurach of Charles the Second to the Crown, 1660, I was restored, and agayn did alter Christmas Sessions, wh was vsually kept the Tuesday after Twelfth-day: yf the same fall on a Munday, to ye Tuesday senight after, 1661, being 14° Jan." (MS. leaf to face p. 289.) "And soe, 1662, it will happen to the Sumer Sessions to begin 15° July, and Michaems Sessions to begin 7 Oct. agst the vsual practise." (MS. leaf to face p. 289.) "Memd. 8° Jan. 1660, at Christms Sessions at Worc. Consented to, and ordered vpon the presentmt of the Grand Jury, that the multitude of cott. erected yn the tyme of the late warr, to be a great grievance. That all cottages, erected since the beginng of the late warres, contrary to laws, to be pluckt down, either vpon the decease, or remouall of the dwellers. And yf now persons be placed therein, being not old or impotent, to be endited, and punished according to 31 Eliz. 7." (MS. leaf to face p. 65.) "Ordered, 11° Jan. 6° Car. By the petion of the Grand Jury, that ther be no making of mault wthin this Countie from this day vntl the next Generall Sessions, vnless it be for prouision of their own priuat howses, or in cases of necessity, yf any such happñ as shalbe allowed by 3 Justices of ye Limitt, and for such quantitis as they shall think fitt." (MS. leaf to face p. 185.) "Memd. 3o July 1662. By letters from the Lords of Counsell, and seconded by an attest of 19 psons from Bristoll, yt was comanded that all tobacco planted wthin the Countie of Worc. should be speedily destroyd by order of the Sheriff and Justices of Peace, to whom ye sd letters were directed." (MS. leaf to face p. 330.) "Att Lent Assizes, Mr. Baron Atkins in his charge dyd recommend to ye Justices of the Peace of ys Countie, strict watch of ye Scote pedlars, in regard they were employd to carry letters of correspondense betwixt ye factious party of our nation to ye discontented party of Scotland: Anno 1683." (MS. to face p. 279.) wich 30° Sept. 1651, before Sr. Sam Wyld, then "Mem. At the Qrter Sessions kept at DroitChief Baron, by reason of the late plundering of ing, the Grand Inquest did consent yt the sum of Worc. by the King's rout, and parlt army plunder500lb be raysed out of the Countie, for the finding poore people of the Citty materialls to sett them on work to relieve themselves." (MS. leaf to face p. 1.) "One Jo. Taylor of Elmbridg. was fined, and had judgmt at Worc. Assizes, 22° Aug. 1661, to pay 201 and two months' imprisonmt wht bayle, then bayld by two Justices to appeare at Sumer Assizes, then and ther solemnly to acknowledg his faulte, in speaking such scandalous wordes, as That ye kingdome is governed by Papistes and popish lawes: Mr. Georg Symonds and myselfe bailed him, and bound him also to his behavior." (MS. leaf to face p. 341.) "Parsons and Curats shall teach that yo prishonrs may, wth a safe and quiet conscience, aftr ther common prayers on holidays, in tyme of harvest, labour and save those things wch God hath sent. Injunctn of Edw. VI. 1547: 2 Eliz. 1549, reprāt 1661." (MS. leaf to face p. 304.) "Articles in yo Bpps uisitacin of Worc. 1662, by Bpp Gaudin : 1. Do y churchwdns and sidesmen diligently take notic of their names, who wthout a sufficient cause were absent on the Lordes-day, and othr holydayes? (MS. leaf to face p. 305.) 2. Do ye churchwdns and sidesmen, by warrant from the Justices, levy 12a for psons absent from church, and is ye money so levyed distributed to ye poore of the pish, and kept in a book?" (MS. leaf to face p. 306.) QUAKERS. "Concerning the sect of Quakrs, ther being in gaole above 50 psons, it was Sr. Ed. Hyde's directions at Lent Assizes, 8° Marc. 1660, to bayle the men (firste acknowledging their Allegiance to ye Kinge) either by recognizanc, or pmise to appeare at the next Assizes, and in ye mean to be of peacebl demeanor. And accordingly Mr. Georg. Symonds and myself releaed them on promise only." (MS. leaf to face p. 270.) "Proclam1n, 29 Jan. 1660, prohibiting all subjects of whateuer degree or quality soeuer to eate any manr of fflesh in Lent, or any other daies vsually obserued as ffish-daies, without lisence accordg to lawe." (MS. leaf to face p. 160.) This is merely a tithe of the interesting matter the volume contains; the principal portion, however, is too local to interest general readers. If you think a few other extracts would be acceptable, I should be happy to send them for insertion. R. C. WARDE. Kidderminster. 66 I do not remember to have found the saying in any of Goldsmith's works, except it be in his Essay on the Policy of concealing our Wants or Poverty;" and certainly he is there speaking of something very different, and not intending to lay down a profligate and unprincipled maxim. His words are these: "It is usually said by grammarians, that the use of language is to express our wants and desires; but men who know the world hold, and I think with some show of reason, that he who best knows how to keep his necessities private, is the most likely person to have them redressed; and that the true use of speech is not so much to express our wants, as to conceal them." A far abler man than either Talleyrand or Goldsmith (viz. Dr. South) was the author of the saying. I quote from his sermon upon 1 Cor. iii. 19., and heartily wish that said sermon, and another by the same writer, upon "Lying lips an abomination to the Lord," were more generally acted upon than they are: "It is looked upon as a great piece of weakness and unfitness for business (forsooth) for a man to be so clear and open, as really to think not only what he says but what he swears: and when he makes any promise, to have the least intent of performing it; but when his interest serves instead of veracity, and engages him rather to be true to another, than false to himself. "He only now speaks like an oracle, who speaks tricks and ambiguities. Nothing is thought beautiful that is not painted: so that, what between French fashions and Italian dissimulations, the old, generous English spirit, which heretofore made this nation so great in the eyes of all the world round about it, seems utterly lost and extinct; and we are degenerated into a mean, sharking, fallacious, undermining way of converse; there being a snare and a trepan almost in every word we hear, and every action we see. Men speak with designs of mischief, and therefore they speak in the dark. In short, this seems to be the true, inward judgment of all our politick sages, that speech was given to the ordinary sort of men, whereby to communicate their mind; but to wise men, whereby to conceal it.”RT. Vol. i. p. 114.: Dublin, 1720, fol. Warmington. CHRONOGRAM ON THE BEHEADING OF KING The vicar of Brockthrop, Gloucestershire, not having sent, as I know he intended, a Note upon of thereby eliciting some further light upon it, the above, I am tempted to do so, with the hope which, though disinterred by myself from the whitewash some twenty-five years ago, was reserved for my friend's ingenuity suddenly to discover its hidden meaning. It occurs on the oaken wall-plate of the porch of the said church, the letters being cut, apparently by a pocket-knife, yet boldly, in one continuous line, thus: "Ter Deno IanI Labens reX soLe CaDente 500+1+1+50 + 10+50+100+500 CaroLVs eXVtVs soLIo sCeptroqVe seCVre 100+50+5+10+5+5+50+1+100 +5 +100+5 =1212 =436 1648." Query, May "sole cadente," which is also allusive to Charles as England's* sun, be translated, "in the afternoon"? Query, When was the precise moment of his decapitation ? It is not difficult to see the drift of this, despite its awkward †, cramped construction; still a satis * There is a medal of Charles I., having in the foreground the monarch on horseback, in the distance the city of London; over all, this legend: "Sol rediens orbem, sic rex illuminat urbem." The poet, in his anxiety to get such words as would count the date A.D. 1648, was thereby limited in his choice. Doubtless similar inscriptions might, if factory translation from the well-known pen of RUFUS, or other contributor to "N. & Q.," is a desideratum. I. N. TRANS-DOBUNUS. On reading the interesting specimens of chronogram, in Vol. vi., pp. 361. 368. of "N. & Q.," it occurred to me that a distich, rudely incised in the cornice of the south porch of the little village church of Brockthrop, near Gloucester, which always struck me as oddly cramped and barbarous in construction, might possibly come under the same category. I send you the result of my examination, which has proved entirely satisfactory: "Ter deno Iani labens rex sole cadente Forming a chronogram thus: "Ter Deno Ian! Labens reX soLe CaDente 500+1+1+50 + 10+50+100+500 CaroLVs eXVtVs soLIo sCeptroqVe seCVre 100 + 55+10+5+5+50+10 Year of King Charles's martyrdom = 1212 = 436 I send you a rubbing of the inscription. By the extreme rudeness of the letters, and the abbreviation of the que, which would make the date deficient by five unless supplied, it is not improbable that it was cut by one ignorant of its chronogrammatical nature. I also subjoin a smooth and accurate translation by a septuagenarian hand: "Ere thirtieth January's setting sun The axe on royal Charles its work had done. Brockthrop. A Collection of Loyal Songs, vol. i. p. 172., printed 1731, contains the following: "Chronosticon Decollationis CAROLI Regis tricesimo die Januarii, secunda Hora Pomeridiana, Anno Dom. MDCXLVIII: "Ter Deno IanI Labens ReX soLe Ca Dente Carol Vs eXVtVs soLIO SCeptroq Ve Sec Vto." This is followed by a poem in thirty-four lines, probably by the "same hand," of which the following is the first verse: "CHARLES-Ah! forbear, forbear; lest mortals prize His Name too dearly, and idolatrize His Name! our Loss! Thrice cursed and forlorn, Be that Black Night which usher'd in this Morn." The chronogram may serve as a companion to the one on p. 361. The following occurs in Owen's Epigrams, close of lib. x.: "Anno SI DeVs nobIs CVM-," i. e. 1612. B. H. COWPER. closely examined, plead a like excuse for their apparent barbarism and distortion. Minor Notes. Sir Gammer Vans and Foote's Story of the SheBear.-The following piece of nonsense went the rounds of the United States newspapers about twenty-one years ago, and is in the style of the above-named pieces, which appeared in Vol. ii. of "N. & Q." It was intended to burlesque Mr. Van Buren's letter resigning the office of Secretary of State, which his political opponents denounced as rather obscure and incomprehensible: "Dear Sir,-The great moving spring of atheistical principles, predicated and promulgated by the influence of popish superstition, could not be more gratified than Jeptha was when he was commander, under the influence of the Providence mail-packet coming in contact with belles lettres. "That class of persons who are never entrusted with anything should be careful what use they make of it, for it is a well-known fact that the heterogeneous matter, compounding with a sour stomach, renders the garment unfit for use; therefore buff vests are fittest for the rising generation, especially when dampness does not amidst the vapours of enthusiasm, which could not conspire to prevent horticulture from springing up have inspired genius with Junius's Letters, although it might have had a hand in hanging Gibbs the pirate." Philadelphia. UNEDA. Lord Nelson.-Everything which relates to our noble-hearted hero is of importance in the eyes of his admirers: therefore the epitaph on the gravestone of one of his old followers will be read with interest. I met with it, four years ago, in the churchyard of Wouldham, a village on the Medway, half-way between Rochester and Maidstone. The concluding lines appear to contradict the statement of my reverend brother, MR. GATTY ("N. & Q.," Vol. vi., p. 438.), that Lord Nelson died in the arms of his chaplain, Dr. Scott. Can the two statements be reconciled? "Sacred to the Memory of WALTER BURKE, Esq., of this Parish, who died on the 12th September, 1615, in the 70th year of his Age. He was Purser of his Majesty's ship Victory in the glorious battle of Trafalgar, and in his arms the immortal Nelson died." T. H. KERSLEY, B. A. Corruptions and Alterations of French Names.The first European settlements in Illinois and Missouri were made by the French, in their efforts to connect Canada with Louisiana by a chain of forts and colonies: hence the oldest names in these states are of French origin. Some of them have been done into English, and occasionally in a An Old Soldier.-Some of your correspondents, who have made inquiries about General Wolfe, and such as are discussing the question, to what age people now attain, may be edified by the following paragraph cut from an American paper: "A Relic of the Past. The census of Canada developes the fact that a man, named Abraham Miller, now living among the Indians, in Grey Township, Simcoe county, and assimilated to them in manners and habits, is 115 years of age. He was in Wolfe's army, before Quebec, 95 years ago." Philadelphia. Queries. 66 LETTER TO DAVID GARRICK." . You lately advertised for A Letter to David Garrick, by David Williams, published, you said, between 1770 and 1773: subsequently the date was fixed at 1772. The advertiser, I suspect, was in doubt: so am I. In the "Memoir of David Williams," signed "B.D.," which appeared in the Gentleman's Magazine, 1816, it is said that Williams first made his appearance as an author by A Letter to David Garrick, published in 1770. Chalmers merely extracts this Memoir, and Watt follows Chalmers as a matter of course. All these authorities, therefore, are but one; and I would answer that, as far as my observation extends, there was no letter to D. G. published in 1770. We come then to A Letter to David Garrick, published by Bladon, 1772. This answers very well to the description of the letter of 1770 given by B. D., and is described in British Museum Catalogue as written by "David Williams, accord ing to MS. note of J. P. Kemble." I presume, therefore, that the date in Memoir is an error. In confirmation, I may mention that there is a strange letter in the Garrick Correspondence, dated Oct. 2, 1772 (vol. i. p. 487.), from an unknown correspondent, wherein the writer informs Garrick that the Letter published by Bladon is written by "a young man who is making himself known as a firstrate genius. His name is Williams; he is intimate at Captain Pye's: Goldsmith knows him, and I have seen him go into Johnson's, but perhaps it was for music." The curious fact, in reference to this private letter, is that it is signed "D. W-s," as if David Williams were himself the writer. Williams, as his whole life proves, though speculative and visionary, was a man of the highest personal honour. It is not, therefore, to be believed that he wrote this private letter; and I cannot conceive what was the motive of the writer. I, however, leave this point to be elucidated by your correspondents. As to Bladon's published letter, there is no reason why D. W. might not have written it, except that the writer's idol is Mrs. Cibber: and she speaks critically of her performance in many characters. Now Williams was educated and brought up in Somersetshire and Devonshire, and I cannot find evidence that he visited London before 1767 or 1768; whereas Mrs. Cibber performed in the provinces but rarely in her later years, from extreme ill-health, and died in 1766. Can any of your readers clear up these difficulties; tell us who was the writer of Bladon's pamphlet; give us any information about the early life of Williams-that is not to be found in the Memoir in Gentleman's Magazine ? L. D. G. Minor Queries. "Oh! spare my English subjects." - King James II. is said to have made use of the above exclamation at the battle of the Boyne, when he beheld his Irish dragoons cutting down an English. regiment. Can you inform me upon what authority does this saying rest? T. O'G. Dublin. 66 What was Single-Speech Hamilton - Home.the reason Hamilton made his grand efforts of oratory so rarely? He spoke more than once, however, and that nickname hardly suits him. Horace Walpole, in a letter dated 1755, speaks of his first speech. Six months afterwards the man of Strawberry writes, Young Hamilton has spoken and shone again." Where did Hamilton get those fine ideas that astonished the people so? I want to know whether his tutor and secretary, Edmund Burke, might not have had a hand in these spasmodic sporadic harangues. In 1765 it is known that Hamilton entered into some sort of an engagement with Dr. Johnson, to be furnished |