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Project Gutenberg's Notes and Queries, Number 81, May 17, 1851, by Various This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net Title: Notes and Queries, Number 81, May 17, 1851 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc Author: Various Editor: George Bell Release Date: July 5, 2009 [EBook #29318] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NOTES AND QUERIES, MAY 17, 1851 *** Produced by Charlene Taylor, Jonathan Ingram, Keith Edkins and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Library of Early Journals.) Transcriber's A few typographical errors have been corrected. They note: appear in the text like this, and the explanation will appear when the mouse pointer is moved over the marked passage. {385} NOTES AND QUERIES: A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION FOR LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC. "When found, make a note of."—Captain Cuttle. Price Threepence No. 81. Saturday, May 17. 1851. Stamped Edition 4 d . CONTENTS. Notes:— Page Illustrations of Chaucer, No. VI.
Voir
Project Gutenberg's Notes and Queries, Number 81, May 17, 1851, by Various
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever.
You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: Notes and Queries, Number 81, May 17, 1851
A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists,
Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc
Author: Various
Editor: George Bell
Release Date: July 5, 2009 [EBook #29318]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NOTES AND QUERIES, MAY 17, 1851 ***
Produced by Charlene Taylor, Jonathan Ingram, Keith Edkins
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
generously made available by The Internet Library of Early
Journals.)
Transcriber's
note:
A few typographical errors have been corrected. They
appear in the text like this, and the explanation will
appear when the mouse pointer is moved over the
marked passage.
NOTES AND QUERIES:
A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION FOR
LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES,
GENEALOGISTS, ETC.
"When found, make a note of."—Captain Cuttle.
No. 81.
Saturday, May 17. 1851.
Price Threepence
Stamped Edition
4
d.
CONTENTS.
Notes:—
Page
Illustrations of Chaucer, No. VI.
385
Dutch Folk-lore
387
Minor Notes:—Verses in Pope: "Bug" or "Bee"—Rub-a-dub—Quotations
—Minnis—Brighton—Voltaire's Henriade
387
Queries:—
The Blake Family, by Hepworth Dixon
389
{385}
Minor Queries:—John Holywood the Mathematician—Essay on the Irony
of Sophocles—Meaning of Mosaic —Stanedge Pole—Names of the
Ferret—Colfabias—School of the Heart—Milton and the Calves-head
Club—David Rizzio's Signature—Lambert Simnel: Was this his real
Name?—Honor of Clare, Norfolk—Sponge—Babington's Conspiracy—
Family of Sir John Banks—Meaning of Sewell—Abel represented with
Horns
389
Minor Queries Answered:—The Fifteen O's—Meaning of Pightle—
Inscription on a Guinea of George III. —Meaning of Crambo
391
Replies:—
John Tradescant probably an Englishman, and his Voyage to Russia in
1618, by S. W. Singer
391
The Family of the Tradescants, by W. Pinkerton
393
Pope Joan
395
Replies to Minor Queries:—Robert Burton's Birthplace—Barlaam and
Josaphat—Witte van Haemstede—The Dutch Church in Norwich—Fest
Sittings—Quaker's Attempt to convert the Pope—The Anti-Jacobin—
Mistletoe—Verbum Græcum—"Après moi le Déluge"—Eisell—"To-day
we purpose"—Modern Paper—St. Pancras—Joseph Nicolson's Family
—Demosthenes and New Testament—Crossing Rivers on Skins—
Curious Facts in Natural History—Prideaux
395
Miscellaneous:—
Notes on Books, Sales, Catalogues, &c.
398
Books and Odd Volumes wanted
399
Notices to Correspondents
399
Advertisements
399
Notes.
ILLUSTRATIONS OF CHAUCER, NO. VI.
Unless Chaucer had intended to mark with particular exactness the day of the
journey to Canterbury, he would not have taken such unusual precautions to
protect his text from ignorant or careless transcribers. We find him not only
recording the
altitudes of the sun, at different hours, in words; but also
corroborating those words by associating them with physical facts incapable of
being perverted or misunderstood.
Had Chaucer done this in one instance only, we might imagine that it was but
another of those occasions, so frequently seized upon by him, for the display of
a little scientific knowledge; but when he repeats the very same precautionary
expedient again, in the afternoon of the same day, we begin to perceive that he
must have had some fixed purpose; because, as I shall presently show, it is the
repetition alone that renders the record imperishable.
But whether Chaucer really devised this method for the express purpose of
preserving his text, or not, it has at least had that effect,—for while there are
scarcely two MSS. extant which agree in the verbal record of the day and
hours, the physical circumstances remain, and afford at all times independent
data for the recovery or correction of the true reading.
The day of the month may be deduced from the declination of the sun; and, to
obtain the latter, all the data required are,
1. The latitude of the place.
2. Two altitudes of the sun at different sides of noon.
It is not absolutely necessary to have any previous knowledge of the hours at
which these altitudes were respectively obtained, because these may be
discovered by the trial method of seeking two such hours as shall most nearly
agree in requiring a declination common to both at the known altitudes. Of
course it will greatly simplify the process if we furthermore know that the
observations must have been obtained at some determinate intervals of time,
such, for example, as complete hours.
Now, in the Prologue to the "Canterbury Tales" we know that the observations
could
not
have
been
recorded
except
at
complete
hours, because
the
construction of the metre will not admit the supposition of any parts of hours
having been expressed.
We are also satisfied that there can be no mistake in the altitudes, because
nothing can alter the facts, that an equality between the length of the shadow
and the height of the substance can only subsist at an altitude of 45 degrees; or
that an altitude of 29 degrees (more or less) is the nearest that will give the ratio
of 11 to 6 between the shadow and its gnomon.
With these data we proceed to the following comparison:
Forenoon altitude
45°.
Afternoon altitude
29°.
Hour.
Declin.
Hour.
Declin.
XI
A.M.
8°
9′ N.
II
P.M.
3° 57′ S.
X
"
13° 27′ "
III
"
3° 16′ N.
IX
"
22° 34′ "
IV
"
13° 26′ "
VIII
"
Impossible.
V
"
Impossible.
Here we immediately select "X
A.M.
" and "IV
P.M.
" as the only two items at all
approaching to similarity; while, in these the approach is so near that they differ
by only a single minute of a degree!
More conclusive evidence therefore could scarcely exist that these were the
hours intended to be recorded by Chaucer, and that the sun's declination,
designed by him, was somewhere about thirteen degrees and a half North.
Strictly speaking, this declination would more properly apply to the 17th of April,
in Chaucer's time, than to the 18th; but since he does not profess to critical
exactness, and since it is always better to adhere to written authority, when it is
not grossly and obviously corrupt, such MSS. as name the 18th of April ought to
be respected; but Tyrwhitt's "28th," which he states not only as the result of his
own conjecture but as authorised by the "the best MSS.," ought to be scouted at
once.
In the latest edition of the "Canterbury Tales" (a literal reprint from one of the
Harl. MSS., for the Percy Society, under the supervision of Mr. Wright), the
opening of the Prologue to "The Man of Lawes Tale" does not materially differ
from Tyrwhitt's text, excepting in properly assigning the day of the journey to
"the eightetene day of April;" and the confirmation of the forenoon altitude is as
follows:
{386}
"And sawe wel that the schade of every tree
Was in the lengthe the same quantite,
That was the body erecte that caused it."
But the afternoon observation is thus related:
"By that the Manciple had his tale endid,
The sonne fro the southe line is descendid
So lowe that it nas nought to my sight,
Degrees nyne and twenty as in hight.
Ten
on the clokke it was as I gesse,
For eleven foote, or litil more or lesse,
My schadow was at thilk time of the yere,
Of which feet as my lengthe parted were,
In sixe feet equal of proporcioun."
In a note to the line "Ten on the clokke" Mr. Wright observes,
"
Ten
. I have not ventured to change the reading of the Harl. MS.,
which is partly supported by that of the lands. MS.,
than
."
If the sole object were to present an exact counterpart of the MS., of course
even its errors were to be respected: but upon no other grounds can I
understand why a reading should be preserved by which broad sunshine is
attributed to ten o'clock at night! Nor can I believe that the copyist of the MS.
with whom the error must have originated would have set down anything so
glaringly absurd, unless he had in his own mind some means of reconciling it
with probability. It may, I believe, be explained in the circumstance that "ten"
and "four," in horary reckoning, were
convertible terms
. The old Roman method
of
naming
the
hours, wherein noon was the sixth, was long preserved,
especially in conventual establishments: and I have no doubt that the English
idiomatic phrase "o'clock" originated in the necessity for some distinguishing
mark between hours "of the clock" reckoned from midnight, and hours of the
d a y reckoned from sunrise, or more frequently from six
A.M.
With such an
understanding, it is clear that
ten
might be called
four
, and
four ten
, and yet the
same identical hour to be referred to; nor is it in the least difficult to imagine that
some monkish transcriber, ignorant perhaps of the meaning of "o'clock," might
fancy he was correcting, rather that corrupting, Chaucer's text, by changing
"foure" into "ten."
I have, I trust, now shown that all these circumstances related by Chaucer, so
far from being hopelessly incongruous, are, on the contrary, harmoniously
consistent;—that they all tend to prove that the day of the journey to Canterbury
could not have been later than the 18th of April;—that the times of observation
were certainly 10
A.M.
and 4
P.M.
;—that the "arke of his artificial day" is to be
understood as the horizontal or azimuthal arch;—and that the "halfe cours in
the Ram" alludes to the completion of the last twelve degrees of that sign, about
the end of the second week in April.
There yet remains to be examined the signification of those three very obscure
lines which immediately follow the description, already quoted, of the afternoon
observation:
"Therewith the Mones exaltacioun
In mena Libra, alway gan ascende
As we were entryng at a townes end."
It is the more unfortunate that we should not be certain what it was that Chaucer
really did write, inasmuch as he probably intended to present, in these lines,
some means of identifying the year, similar to those he had previously given
with respect to the day.
When Tyrwhitt, therefore, remarks, "In what year this happened Chaucer does
not inform us"—he was not astronomer enough to know that if Chaucer had
meant to leave, in these lines, a record of the moon's place on the day of the
journey, he could not have chosen a more certain method of informing us in
what year it occurred.
But as the present illustration has already extended far enough for the limits of
a single number of "Notes and Queries," I shall defer the investigation of this
last and greatest difficulty to my next communication.
A. E. B.
Leeds, April 29.
DUTCH FOLK-LORE.
1. A baby laughing in its dreams is conversing with the angels.
2. Rocking the cradle when the babe is not in it, is considered injurious to the
infant, and a prognostic of its speedy death.
3. A strange dog following you is a sign of good luck.
4. A stork settling on a house is a harbinger of happiness. To kill such a bird
would be sacrilege.
5. If you see a shooting star, the wish you form before its disappearance will be
fulfilled.
6. A person born with a caul is considered fortunate.
7. Four-leaved clover brings luck to the person who finds it unawares.
8. An overturned salt-cellar is a ship wrecked. If a person take salt and spill it on
the table, it betokens a strife between him and the person next to whom it fell.
To avert the omen, he must lift up the shed grains with a knife, and throw them
behind his back.
9. After eating eggs in Holland, you must break the shells, or the witches would
sail over in them to England. The English don't know under what obligations
they are to the Dutch for this custom. Please to tell them.
10. If you make a present of a knife or scissors, the person receiving must pay
something for it; otherwise the friendship between you would be cut off.
11. A tingling ear denotes there is somebody speaking of you behind your
back. If you hear the noise in the right one, he praises you; if on the left side, he
is calling you a scoundrel, or something like that. But, never mind! for if, in the
latter case, you bite your little finger, the evil speaker's tongue will be in the
same predicament. By all means, don't spare your little finger!
12. If, at a dinner, a person yet unmarried be placed inadvertently between a
married couple, be sure he or she will get a partner within the year. It's a pity it
{387}
must be inadvertently.
13. If a person when rising throw down his chair, he is considered guilty of
untruth.
14. A potato begged or stolen is a preservative against rheumatism. Chestnuts
have the same efficacy.
15. The Nymphæa, or water-lily, whose broad leaves, and clear white or yellow
cups, float upon the water, was esteemed by the old Frisians to have a magical
power. "I remember, when
a
boy,"
says
Dr. Halbertsma, "that we were
extremely careful in plucking and handling them; for if any one fell with such a
flower in his possession, he became immediately subject to fits."
16. One of my friends cut himself. A manservant being present secured the
knife hastily, anointed it with oil, and putting it into the drawer, besought the
patient not to touch it for some days. Whether the cure was effected by this
sympathetic means, I can't affirm; but cured it was: so, don't be alarmed.
17. If you feel on a sudden a shivering sensation in your back, there is
somebody walking over your future grave.
18. A person speaking by himself will die a violent death.
19. Don't go under a ladder, for if you do you will be hanged.
* a ?
Amsterdam.
Minor Notes.
Verses in Pope
—
"Bug" or "Bee."
—Pope, in
the
Dunciad
, speaking of the
purloining propensities of Bays, has the lines:
"Next o'er his books his eyes began to roll,
In pleasing memory of all he stole;
How here he sipp'd, how there he plunder'd snug,
And suck'd all o'er, like an industrious bug."
In reading these lines, some time ago, I was forcibly struck with the incongruity
of the terms "sipp'd" and "industrious" as applied to "bug;" and it occurred to me
that Pope may have originally written the passage with the words "free" and
"bee," as the rhymes of the two last lines. My reasons for this conjecture are
these: 1st. Because Pope is known to have been very fastidious on the score of
coarse or vulgar expressions; and his better judgment would have recoiled from
the use of so offensive a word as "bug." 2ndly. Because, as already stated, the
terms "sipp'd" and "industrious" are inapplicable to a bug. Of the bug it may be
said,
that it "sucks" and "plunders;" but it cannot, with any propriety, be
predicated of it, as of the bee, that it "sips" and is "industrious." My impression
is, that when Pope found he was doing too much honour to Tibbald by
comparing him to a bee, he substituted the word "bug" and its corresponding
rhyme, without reflecting that some of the epithets, already applied to the one,
are wholly inapplicable to the other.
Henry H. Breen.
St. Lucia, March, 1851.
Rub-a-dub.
—This word is put forward as an instance of how new words are still
formed with a view to similarity of sound with the sound of what they are
intended to express, by Dr. Francis Lieber, in a "Paper on the Vocal Sounds of
Laura Bridgeman compared with the Elements of Phonetic Language," and its
authorship is assigned to Daniel Webster, who said in a speech of July 17,
1850:
"They have been beaten incessantly every month, and every day,
and every hour, by the din, and roll, and
rub-a-dub
of the Abolition
presses."
Dr. L. adds:
"No dictionary in my possession has
rub-a-dub
; by and by the
lexicographer will admit this, as yet, half-wild word."
My note is, that though this word be not recognised by the dictionaries, yet it is
by no means so new as Dr. L. supposes; for I distinctly remember that, some
four-and-twenty years ago, one of those gay-coloured books so common on the
shelves of nursery libraries had, amongst other equally
recherché
couplets, the
following attached to a gaudy print of a military drum:
"Not a
rub-a-dub
will come
To sound the music of a drum:"
—no great authority certainly, but sufficient to give the word a greater antiquity
than Dr. L. claims for it; and no doubt some of your readers will be able to
furnish more dignified instances of its use.
J. Eastwood.
Ecclesfield.
[To this it may be added, that
Dub-a-dub
is found in Halliwell's
Arch.
Gloss.
with the definition, "To beat a drum; also, the blow on the drum.
'The dub-a-dub of honour.' Woman is a weathercock, p. 21., there
used metaphorically." Mr. Halliwell might also have cited the nursery
rhyme:
"Sing rub-a-dub-dub,
Three men in a tub."]
Quotations.
—
1. "In time the savage bull doth bear the yoke."
Quoted in
Much Ado about Nothing
, Act I. Sc. 1.
Mr. Knight (Library Edition, ii. 379.) says this line is from Hieronymo, but gives
no reference, and I have not found it. In a sonnet by Thomas Watson (
A.D.
1560-
91) occurs the line (see Ellis's
Specimens
)—
"In time the bull is brought to bear the yoke."
Whence did Shakspeare quote the line?
2. "
Nature's mother-wit.
" This phrase is found in Dryden's "Ode to St. Cecilia,"
and also in Spenser,
Faerie Queene
, book iv. canto x. verse 21. Where does it
first occur?
3. "The divine chit-chat of Cowper." Query, Who first designated the "Task"
{388}
thus? Charles Lamb uses the phrase as a quotation. (See
Final Memorials of
Charles Lamb
, i. 72.)
J. H. C.
Adelaide, South Australia.
Minnis.
—There are (or there were) in East Kent seven Commons known by the
local term "Minnis," viz., 1. Ewell Minnis; 2. River do.; 3. Cocclescombe do.; 4.
Swingfield do.; 5. Worth do.; 6. Stelling do.; 7. Rhode do. Hasted (
History of
Kent
) says he is at a loss for the origin of the word, unless it be in the Latin
"Mina," a certain quantity of land, among different nations of different sizes; and
he refers to Spelman's
Glossary
, verbum "Mina."
Now the only three with which I am acquainted, River, Ewell, and Swingfield
Minnis, near Dover, are all on high ground; the two former considerably
elevated above their respective villages.
One would rather look for a Saxon than a Celtic derivation in East Kent; but
many localities, &c. there still retain British or Celtic names, and eminently so
the stream that runs through River and Ewell, the Dour or Dwr,
unde
, no doubt,
Dover, where it disembogues into the sea. May we not therefore likewise seek
in the same language an interpretation of this (at least as far as I know) hitherto
unexplained term?
In Armorican we find "Menez" and "Mene," a mount. In the kindred dialect,
Cornish, "Menhars" means a boundary-stone; "Maenan" (Brit.), stoney moor;
"Mynydh" (Brit.), a mountain, &c.
As my means of research are very limited, I can only hazard a conjecture,
which it will give me much pleasure to see either refuted or confirmed by those
better informed.
A. C. M.
Brighton.
—It is stated in Lyell's
Principles
of Geology
, that in the reign of
Elizabeth the town of Brighton was situated on that tract where the Chain Pier
now extends into the sea; that in 1665 twenty-two tenements still remained
under the cliffs; that no traces of the town are perceptible; that the sea has
resumed its ancient position, the site of the old town having been merely a
beach abandoned by the ocean for ages. On referring to the "Attack of the
French
on
Brighton
in
1545,"
as
represented
in
the
engraving
in
the
Archæologia
, April 14, 1831, I find the town standing
apparently
just where it is
now, with "a felde in the middle," but with some houses on the beach opposite
what is not Pool Valley, on the east side of which houses the French are
landing; the beach end of the road from Lewes.
A. C.
Voltaire's "Henriade."
—I have somewhere seen an admirable translation of this
poem into English verse. Perhaps you can inform me of the author's name. The
work seems to be scarce, as I recollect having seen it but once: it was
published, I think, about thirty years ago. (See
antè
, p. 330.)
The house in which Voltaire was born, at Chatnaye, about ten miles from Paris,
is now the property of the Comtesse de Boigne, widow of the General de
Boigne, and daughter of the Marquis d'Osmond, who was ambassador here
during the reign of Louis XVIII. The mother of the poet being on a visit with
the
then
proprietor (whose name I cannot recollect), was unexpectedly confined.
There is a street in the village called the Rue Voltaire. The Comtesse de
Boigne is my authority for the fact of the poet's birth having taken place in her
{389}
house.
A. J. M.
Alfred Club.
Queries.
THE BLAKE FAMILY.
The renowned Admiral Blake, a native of Bridgewater, and possessed of
property in the neighbourhood, left behind him a numerous family of brothers,
sisters, nephews, and nieces, settled in the county of Somerset; to wit, his
brothers Humphrey, William, George, Nicholas, Benjamin, and Alexander all
survived him, as did also his sisters, Mrs. Bowdich, of Chard, and Mrs. Smith, of
Cheapside, in London. His brother Samuel, killed in an early part of the Civil
War, left two sons, Robert and Samuel, both of them honourably remembered
in the will of their great uncle. Can any of your readers, acquainted with
Somerset genealogies, give me any information which may enable me to make
out the descent of the present families of Blake, in that county, from this stock?
There are at least two Blake houses now in existence, who are probably of the
blood of the illustrious admiral; the Blakes of Bishop's Hall, near Taunton, of
which William Blake, Esq., a magistrate for the county, is the head; and the
Blakes of Venue House, Upton, near Wiveliscombe, the representative of
which is Silas Wood Blake, son of Dr. William Blake, a bencher of the Inner
Temple. These families possess many relics of the admiral—family papers,
cabinets, portrait, and even estates; and that they are of his blood there are
other reasons for believing; but, so far as I know, the line is not clearly traced
back. In a funeral sermon spoken on the death of the grandfather of the present
William Blake, Esq., of Bishop's Hall, I find it stated that—
"He was descended from pious and worthy ancestors; a collateral
branch of the family of that virtuous man, great officer, and true
patriot, Admiral Blake. His grandfather, the Rev. Malachi Blake, a
Nonconformist minister,
resided
at
Blogden,
four
miles
from
Taunton. This gentleman, by his pious labours, laid the foundation
of the
dissenting
congregation
at Wellington, in the county of
Somerset. After the defeat of the Duke of Monmouth, to whose
cause he had been friendly, he was obliged to flee from home, and
went to London disguised in a lay-dress, with a tye-wig and a
sword."
This minister had three sons, John, Malachi, and William; and it is from the last
named that the Blakes of Bishop's Hall are descended. But who was the father
of Malachi Blake himself? He was probably a son or grandson of one of the
admiral's brothers—but of which?
Permit me to add to this Query another remark. I am engaged in writing a Life of
Admiral Blake, and shall be extremely grateful to any of your correspondents
who can and will direct me, either through the medium of your columns or by
private communication, to any new
sources of information respecting his
character and career. A meagre pamphlet being the utmost that has yet been
given to the memory of this great man, the entire story of his life has to be built
up from the beginning. Fragments of papers, scraps of information, however
slight, may therefore be of material value. A date or a name may contain an
important clue, and will be thankfully acknowledged. Of course I do not wish to
be referred to information contained in well-known collections, such as Thurloe,
Rushworth, Whitelock, and the Parliamentary Histories, nor to the Deptford
MSS. in the Tower, the Admiralty papers in the State Paper Office, or the
Ashmole MSS. at Oxford. I am also acquainted, of course, with several papers
in the national collection of MSS. at the British Museum throwing light on the
subject; but while these MSS. remain in their present state, it would be very
rash in any man to say what is
not
to be found in them. Should any one, in
reading for his own purposes, stumble on a fact of importance for me in these
MSS., I shall be grateful for a communication; but my appeal is rather made to
th e possessors of old family papers. There must, I think, be many letters—
though he was a brief and abrupt correspondent—of the admiral's still existing
in the archives of old Puritan families. These are the materials of history of
which I am most in need.
Hepworth Dixon.
84. St. John's Wood Terrace.
Minor Queries.
John Holywood the Mathematician.
—Is the birthplace of this distinguished
scholar known? Leland, Bale, and Pits assert him to have been born at Halifax,
in Yorkshire; Stanyhurst says, at Holywood, near Dublin; and according to
Dempster and Mackenzie, at Nithsdale, in Scotland.
Edward F. Rimbault.
Essay on the Irony of Sophocles, &c.
—Who is the author of the
Essay on the
Irony of Sophocles
, which has been termed the most exquisite piece of criticism
in the English language?
Is it Cicero who says,
"Malo cum Platone errare, quam cum aliis rectè sentire?"
And who embodied the somewhat contradictory maxim,—
"Amicus Plato, sed magis amica veritas?"
Nemo.
Meaning of Mosaic.
—What is the exact meaning and derivation of the word
Mosaic as a term in art?
H. M. A.
Stanedge Pole.
—Can
any one
inform me
in
what part of Yorkshire
the
antiquarian remains of Stanedge Pole are situated; and where the description
of them is to be found?
A. N.
Names of the Ferret.
—I should be much obliged by any one of your readers
informing me what peculiar names are given to the male and female ferret? Do
they occur any where in any author? as by knowing how the words are spelt,
we may arrive at their etymology.
T. Lawrence.
Ashby-de-la-Zouch.
Colfabias.
—Can any of your learned correspondents furnish the origin and
{390}
meaning of this word? It was the name of the
privy
attached to the Priory of Holy
Trinity in Dublin; and still is to be seen in old leases of that religious house
(now Christ Church Cathedral), spelled sometimes as above, and other times
coolfabioos
.
The present dean and chapter are quite in the dark upon the subject. I hope you
will be able to give us a little light from your general stock.
A Ch. Ch. Man.
Dublin.
School of the Heart.
—This work consists of short poems similar in character
and merit to Quarles's
Emblems
, and adorned with cuts of the same class. I
have at hand none but modern editions, and in these the production is ascribed
to Quarles. But Montgomery, in his
Christian Poet
, quotes the
School of the
Heart
, without explanation, as the work of Thomas Harvey, 1647. Can any of
your readers throw light on this matter?
S. T. D.
Milton and the Calves-head Club.
—I quote the following fro m
The Secret
History of the Calves-head Club: or the Republican Unmasqu'd
, 4to., 1703. The
author is relating what was told him by "a certain active Whigg, who, in all other
respects, was a man of probity enough."
"He further told me that Milton, and some other creatures of the
Commonwealth, had instituted this Club [the Calves-head Club], as
he
was inform'd, in opposition to Bp. Juxon, Dr. Sanderson, Dr.
Hammond, and other divines of the Church of England, who met
privately every 30th of January; and though it was under the Time of
Usurpation, had compil'd a private Form of Service for the Day, not
much different from what we now find in the Liturgy."
Do any of Milton's biographers mention his connexion with this club? Does the
form of prayer compiled by Juxon, Sanderson, and Hammond exist?
K. P. D. E.
David Rizzio's Signature.
—Can any reader of "Notes and Queries" furnish the
applicant with either a fac-simile or a minute description of the signature and
handwriting of David Rizzio? The application is made in order to the verification
of a most remarkable alleged instance of clairvoyance, recorded at large in a
volume on that and its kindred subjects just published by Dr. Gregory of
Edinburgh.
F. K.
Lambert Simnel—Was this his real Name?
—It occurs to me that we are not in
possession of the real name of Lambert Simnel, the famous claimant of the
crown of England. We are told that he was the son of a baker; and we learn
from Johnson's
Dictionary
that the word "simnel" signified a kind of sweet-
bread or cake. Now, considering the uncertainty and mutability of surnames in
former times, I am led to suspect that "Simnel" may have been a nickname first
applied to his father, in allusion to his trade; and I am strengthened in my
suspicion by not finding any such name as "Simnel" in any index of ancient
names. Could any of your correspondents throw light on this question, or tell
whether Lambert left any posterity?
T.
Honor of Clare, Norfolk.
—I have seen a letter, dated about 1702, in the
possession of a gentleman of this town, which alludes "
To His Majesty's Honor
