Replies.

MEDIÆVAL OR MIDDLE AGES.

(Vol. v., p. 469.)

The question there put by L. T. is still constantly asked, and the answer given by a reference to Mr. Dowling's work may perhaps be unsatisfactory to many, as not sufficiently defining the period at which the Middle Ages may be said to terminate. By some of the best historical writers, the commencement and termination are variously stated. In a work recently published by George T. Manning, entitled Outlines of the History of the Middle Ages, with heads of analysis, &c., the Querist seems answered with more precision. Mr. Manning divides General History into three great divisions—Ancient History, that of the Middle Ages, and Modern History; the first division extending from the Creation to about four hundred years after the birth of Christ; the second from A.D. 400 to the close of the fifteenth century of the Christian era; the third embracing those ages which have elapsed since the close of mediæval times.

The Middle Age portions he divides into five great periods, denoted by the vast changes which took place in the course of that history, viz.:

The doubling of the Cape of Good Hope being the last important event, which he places in 1497.

This is nearly the same view as taken by M. Lamé Fleury, who commences with the fall of the Western Empire in 476, and closes with the conquest of Granada by the Spaniards in 1492: thinking that memorable event, which terminated in a degree the struggle of the Western against the Eastern Empire, a better limit ("une limite plus rigoureusement exacte") than the taking of Constantinople by Mahomet II. in 1453, the date when this historical period is generally terminated by most writers.

Appended to this little volume is a list of remarkable dates and events, as also of battles and treaties during the Middle Ages.

G.

CONSECRATORS OF ENGLISH BISHOPS.

(Vol. vii., pp. 132. 220.)

1. Ashurst Turner Gilbert, Bishop of Chichester, was consecrated Feb. 27, 1842, by the Archbishop of Canterbury, assisted by the Bishops of Lincoln and Llandaff.

2. Edward Field, Bishop of Newfoundland, April 28, 1844, by the Archbishop of Canterbury, assisted by the Bishops of London, Bangor, and Worcester.

3. Thomas Turton, Bishop of Ely;

4. John Medley, Bishop of Fredericton;

5. James Chapman, Bishop of Columbo; May 4, 1845, by the Archbishop of Canterbury, assisted by the Bishops of London, Rochester, Lincoln, Hereford, Lichfield, and Bishop Coleridge.

6. Samuel Gobat, Bishop of the United Church of England and Ireland in Jerusalem, July 5, 1846, by the Archbishop of Canterbury, assisted by the Bishops of London, Calcutta, and Lichfield.

7. George Smith, Bishop of Victoria;

8. David Anderson, Bishop of Rupert's Land; May 29, 1849, in Canterbury Cathedral, by the Archbishop of Canterbury, assisted by the Bishops of London, Winchester, and Oxford.

9. Francis Fulford, Bishop of Montreal, July 25, 1830, by the Archbishop of Canterbury, assisted by the Bishops of Oxford, Salisbury, Chichester, Norwich, and Toronto.

10. John Harding, Bishop of Bombay, Aug. 10, 1851, by the Archbishop of Canterbury, assisted by the Bishop of London and Bishop Carr.

11. Hibbert Binney, Bishop of Nova Scotia, March 25, 1851, by the Archbishop of Canterbury, assisted by the Bishops of London, Chichester, and Oxford.

12. John Lonsdale, Bishop of Lichfield, was consecrated in the chapel of Lambeth Palace.

I believe A. S. A. will find all his Queries answered in the above list; but as he may wish to know the names as well as the titles of the consecrating Bishops, I subjoin a list of them.

In the consecration of the first six bishops in the list, the Archbishop of Canterbury was Dr. William Howley; in all the others he was Dr. John Bird Sumner. The Bishop of Lincoln, wherever mentioned, was Dr. John Kaye. The Bishop of Llandaff was Dr. E. Coplestone; the Bishop of London was Dr. C. J. Blomfield; the Bishop of Bangor, Dr. Christopher Bethell; the Bishop of Worcester, Dr. H. Pepys; the Bishop of Rochester, Dr. George Murray; the Bishop of Hereford, Dr. Thomas Musgrave; the Bishop of Lichfield, Dr. John Lonsdale; the Bishop of Calcutta, Dr. Daniel Wilson; the Bishop of Winchester, Dr. C. R. Sumner; the Bishop of Oxford, Dr. Samuel Wilberforce; the Bishop of Salisbury, Dr. Edward Denison; the Bishop of Chichester, Dr. A. T. Gilbert; the Bishop of Norwich, Dr. Samuel Hinds; the Bishop of Toronto, Dr. John Strachan.

Tyro.

Dublin.

"GRINDLE."

(Vol. vii., p. 107.)

The question of C. G. supplies a new instance of an ancient and heroic word still surviving in a local name. The only other places in England that I have as yet heard of are, Grindleton in the West Riding of Yorkshire, and a Gryndall in the East Riding. The authority for this latter is Mr. Williams' Translation of Leo's Anglo-Saxon Names, p. 7., note 3.

In old England, the name was probably not uncommon: it occurs in a description of landmarks in Kemble's Codex Dipl., vol. ii. p. 172.: "on grendles mere."

There is a peculiar interest attaching to this word; or, I might say, it is invested with a peculiar horror, as being the name of the malicious fiend, the man-enemy whom Beowulf subdues in our eldest national Epic:

So he is introduced in the poem, when, in the dead of night, he comes to the hall where the warriors are asleep, ravining for the human prey. The following is something like the meaning of the lines:—

This awful being was no doubt in the mind of those who originated the name grendles mere, before quoted from Kemble. The name is applied to a locality quite in keeping with the ancient mythological character of Grendel, who held the moor and the fen. Most strikingly does the same sentiment appear in the name of that strange and wildering valley of the Bernese Oberland, in Switzerland:—I mean the valley of Grindelwald, with its two awful glaciers.

But when we come to consider the etymology of the name, we are led to an object which seems inadequate, and incapable of acting as the vehicle for these deep and natural sentiments of the inhuman and the horrible.

Grendel means, originally, no more than a bar or rod, or a palisade or lattice-work made of such bars or rods. Also a bar or bolt for fastening a door, or for closing a harbour. Middle-aged people at Zurich recollect when the old "Grindel" was still standing at the mouth of their river. This was a tremendous bar, by which the water-approach to their town could be closed against an enemy; who might otherwise pass from the Lake of Zurich down the river Limmat, into the heart of the town of Zurich.

It was in Germany that this word lived longest as a common substantive. There is no known instance of it in Anglo-Saxon, other than in proper names, and of these I know no more than are already enumerated above; whereas, in the Middle High German, it is by no means uncommon. It occurs in a mystery on the resurrection preserved in this dialect, and edited by Ettmüller, 1851 (Dat Spil fan der Upstandinge). I cannot now find the line, but it is used there for "the gates of hell." Cf. also Ziemann's Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, voc. Grindel.

Grimm, in his Mythology, establishes a connexion between Grendel and Loki, the northern half-deity half-demon, the origin of evil. He was always believed to have cunningly guided the shaft of Flöder the Blind, who, in loving sport, shot his brother Balder the Gay, the beloved of gods and men. So entered sorrow into the hitherto unclouded Asaland.

Grimm draws attention to the circumstance that Loki is apparently connected with the widespread root which appears in English in the forms lock and latch. Here is a very striking analogy, and it is supported by an instance from the present German: Höllriegel = vectis infernalis, brand of hell, is still recognised as = teufel; or for an old witch = devil's dam.

And even in Latin documents we find the same idea represented. Thus, in a charter of King Edgar (Cod. Dipl., No. 487.), which begins with a recital of the fall of man, and the need of escaping the consequent misery, we have the following:

"Quamobrem ego Eadgar, totius Britanniæ gubernator et rector, ut hujus miseriæ repagulum quam protoplastus inretitus promeruit ... evadere queam, quandam ruris particulam ... largitus sum," &c. &c.

As to the application of this name to localities, it seems to represent the same sentiment as the prefix of Giant, Grim, or Devil: and this sentiment would be that of the grand or awful in Nature, and mysterious or unaccountable in artificial works. I think we may then safely conclude, that all dikes, ditches, camps, cromlechs, &c., which have such titles attached to them, date from an age previous to the Saxons being in England. For example, if we did not know from other sources the high antiquity of Wayland Smith's Cave in Berkshire, we might argue that it was at least pre-Saxon; from the fact that the Saxons called it by the name of their Vulcan, and therefore that it appeared to them so mysterious as to be dignus vindice nodus.

If your correspondent C. G., or any of your readers, can, either from their reading or from local knowledge, add any further illustrations or examples of this ancient heathen word, I, for one, shall receive them gratefully.

I. E.

Oxford.

MUMMIES OF ECCLESIASTICS.

(Vol. vi., pp. 53. 110. 205. 328.)

Although I have myself seen the natural mummies preserved at Kreuzberg on the Rhine, I can say nothing more with regard to them, than vouch for the accuracy of the accounts transmitted by your various correspondents under this head. Your Querist A. A. however may, if curious on this subject, be referred with advantage to Mr. T. J. Pettigrew's interesting History of Egyptian Mummies. In chap. xvii. of this work, many instances are adduced of the preservation of bodies from putrefaction by the desiccating properties of the natural air of the place in which they are contained. He says:

"In dry, and particularly calcareous vaults, bodies may be preserved for a great length of time. In Toulouse, bodies are to be seen quite perfect, although buried two centuries ago. In the vaults of St. Michael's Church, Dublin, the same effect is produced; and Mr. Madden says he there saw the body of Henry Shears, who was hanged in 1798, in a state of preservation equal to that of any Egyptian mummy."

Garcilasso de la Veya, and more recent historians, may be referred to for accounts of the mummy-pits of Peru, the dry air of which country is an effectual preventive of the process of putrefaction. One of the most curious spectacles, however, of this nature is to be found in the Catacombs of Palermo, where the traveller finds himself in the midst of some thousands of unburied bodies, which, suspended mostly by the neck, have become so distorted in form and feature in the process of desiccation, as to provoke an irrepressible smile in the midst of more solemn and befitting contemplations. (Sonnini's Travels, vol. i. p. 47.; Smyth's Memoirs of Sicily and its Islands, p. 88.)

Similar properties are also attributed to the air of the western islands of Scotland. "To return to our purpose," says P. Camerarius (The Living Librarie, translated by Molle, folio, London, 1625, p. 47.),—

"That which Abraham Ortelius reporteth after Gyrald de Cambren is wonderfull, that the bodies of men rot not after their decease, in the isles of Arran; and that therefore they bee not buried, but left in the open ayr, where putrefaction doth them no manner of hurt; whereby the families (not without amazement) doe know their fathers, grandfathers, great-grandfathers, and a long race of their predecessors. Peter Martyr, a Milannois, saith the same of some West Indians of Comagra. These bee his words: 'The Spaniards being entered the lodgings of this Cacick, found a chamber fulle of dead bodies, hanging by ropes of cotton, and asking what superstition that was, they received this answer, That those were the fathers, grandfathers, and great-grandfathers of the Cacick of Comagra. The Indians say that they keep such relikes preciously, and that the ceremonie is one of the points of their religion. According to his qualities while he lived, his bodie, being dead, is richly decked with jewels and precious stones.'"

Many other instances might be adduced, but you will now think that at least enough has been said on this subject.

William Bates.

Birmingham.

VICARS-APOSTOLIC IN ENGLAND.

(Vol. vi., pp. 125. 297. 400.; Vol. vii., pp. 242. 243.)

Your correspondent A. S. A. seems very anxious to possess a complete list of the vicars-apostolic of England. With their names, and the date of their consecration and death, collected from various sources, I am able to supply him.

The last survivor of the Roman Catholic bishops consecrated in England prior to the reign of Elizabeth was Dr. Thomas Watson, appointed bishop of Lincoln in 1557 by Queen Mary, and deprived (on the accession of Elizabeth) in 1559.

Upon his death, in 1584, the Catholic clergy in England were left without a head, and the Pope some time after appointed an arch-priest, to superintend them, and the following persons filled the office:

Consecrated. Died.

1598. Rev. George Blackwell.

— Rev. George Birkhead 1614.

1615. Rev. George Harrison 1621.

On the death of the latter the episcopate was revived by the pope in England, and one bishop was consecrated as head of the English Catholics.

Consecrated. Died.

1623. Dr. William Bishop 1624.

1625. Dr. Richard Smith 1655.

1685. Dr. John Leyburn, with whom, in 1688, Dr.

Giffard was associated; but almost immediately after this England was divided into four districts, and the order of succession in each was as follows:

London or Southern District.

Consecrated. Died.

1685. Bishop Leyburn 1703.

1688. Bishop Giffard (translated from the Midland District, 1703) 1733.

1733. Bishop Petre 1758.

1741. Bishop Challoner 1781.

1758. Bishop Honourable James Talbot 1790.

1790. Bishop Douglas 1812.

1803. Bishop Poynter 1827.

1823. Bishop Bramston 1836.

1828. Bishop Gradwell 1833.

1833. Bishop Griffiths 1847.

Midland or Central District.

1688. Bishop Giffard (translated to London, 1703).

1703. Bishop Witham (translated to the Northern District, 1716).

1716. Bishop Stonor 1756.

1753. Bishop Hornihold 1779.

1766. Bishop Honourable T. Talbot 1795.

1786. Bishop Berington 1798.

1801. Bishop Stapleton 1802.

1803. Bishop Milner 1826.

1825. Bishop Walsh (translated to London, 1848).

1840. Bishop Wiseman (coadjutor).

Western District.

1688. Bishop Ellis 1726.

1715. Bishop Prichard 1750.

1741. Bishop York 1770.

1758. Bishop Walmesley 1797.

1781. Bishop Sharrock 1809.

1807. Bishop Collingridge 1829.

1823. Bishop Baines 1843.

Northern District.

1688. Bishop James Smith 1711.

1716. Bishop Witham 1725.

1726. Bishop Williams 1740.

1741. Bishop Dicconson 1752.

1750. Bishop Honourable F. Petre 1775.

1768. Bishop Maire (coadjutor to Bishop Petre) 1769.

1770. Bishop Walton 1780.

1780. Bishop Gibson 1790.

1790. Bishop William Gibson (brother to the preceding bishop) 1821.

1810. Bishop Thomas Smith 1831.

1824. Bishop Penswick 1836.

1833. Bishop Briggs, removed to the new district

of Yorkshire in 1840, and became Roman Catholic Bishop of Beverley in 1850.

In 1840, England and Wales were divided among eight vicars-apostolic, and from that time until the year 1850 the following was the arrangement:

London.

Consecrated. Died.

1833. Bishop Griffiths 1847.

1825. Bishop Walsh 1849.

1840. Bishop Wiseman, at first coadjutor to Bishop

Walsh here, as he had been in the central District. Elevated to the archiepiscopate, 1850.

Central.

1825. Bishop Walsh, removed to London in 1848.

1846. Bishop Ullathorne; became Roman Catholic Bishop of Birmingham, 1850.

Western.

1823. Bishop Baines 1843.

1843. Bishop Beggs 1846.

1846. Bishop Ullathorne; removed to the Central District, 1848.

1848. Bishop Hendren, became Roman Catholic Bishop of Clifton, 1850.

Northern.

1833. Bishop Briggs; removed in 1840 to the new district of Yorkshire.

1840. Bishop Riddell 1847.

1848. Bishop Hogarth; became Roman Catholic Bishop of Hexham, 1850.

Eastern.

1840. Bishop Wareing; became Roman Catholic Bishop of Northampton, 1850.

Yorkshire.

1833. Bishop Briggs, from the Northern District; became Roman Catholic Bishop of Beverley, 1850.

Lancashire.

1840. Bishop G. Brown; became Roman Catholic Bishop of Liverpool, 1850.

1843. Bishop Sharples (coadjutor) 1850.

Wales.

1840. Bishop T. J. Browne; became Roman Catholic Bishop of Newport, 1850.

In 1850 came another change, and one archbishop and twelve bishops were appointed to rule over the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales:

Archbishop of Westminster.

Consecrated.

1850. Cardinal Nicholas Wiseman.

Bishop of Hexham.

1850. William Hogarth.

Bishop of Beverley.

1850. John Briggs.

Bishop of Liverpool.

1850. George Brown.

Bishop of Birmingham.

1850. William Ullathorne.

Bishop of Northampton.

1850. William Wareing.

Bishop of Newport and Menevia.

1850. Thomas Joseph Browne.

Bishop of Nottingham.

1850. Joseph William Hendren (from Clifton); resigned his bishoprick, 1853.

Bishop of Clifton.

1850. Joseph William Hendren (removed in 1851 to Nottingham.)

1851. Thomas Burgess.

Bishop of Salford.

1851. William Turner.

Bishop of Plymouth.

1851. George Errington.

Bishop of Shrewsbury.

1851. James Brown.

Bishop of Southwark.

1851. Thomas Grant.

The foregoing I believe to be, in the main, a correct account of the Roman Catholic episcopate in England and Wales from the accession of Elizabeth down to the present year.

J. R. W.

Bristol.

BANBURY ZEAL, ETC.

(Vol. vii., p. 106.)

I have no doubt that the particular instance of Zeal in the cause of the Church at Banbury, which Addison had in mind when he wrote No. 220. of the Tatler, published Sept. 5, 1710, was a grand demonstration made by its inhabitants in favour of Dr. Sacheverell, whose trial had terminated in his acquittal on March 23 of that year. And my opinion is strengthened by the introduction almost immediately afterwards of a passage on the party use of the terms High Church and Low Church.

On June 3, 1710, the High Church champion made a triumphal entry into Banbury, which is ridiculed in a pamphlet called The Banb..y Apes, or the Monkeys chattering to the Magpye; in a Letter to a Friend in London. On the back of the title is large woodcut, representing the procession which accompanied the doctor; among the personages of which the Mayor of Banbury (as a wolf), and the aldermen (as apes), are conspicuous figures. Dr. Sacheverell himself appears on horseback, followed by a crowd of persons bearing crosses and rosaries, or strewing branches. The accompanying letter-press describes this procession as being closed by twenty-four tinkers beating on their kettles, and a "vast mob, hollowing, hooping, and playing the devil." There is another tract on the same subject, which is extremely scarce, entitled—

"An Appeal from the City to the Country for the Preservation of Her Majesty's Person, Liberty, Property, and the Protestant Religion, &c. Occasionally written upon the late impudent Affronts offer'd to Her Majesty's Royal Crown and Dignity by the People of Banbury and Warwick: Lond. 8vo. 1710."

To your correspondent H.'s (p. 222.) quotation from Braithwait's "Drunken Barnaby" may be added this extract from an earlier poem by the same writer, called "A Strappado for the Divell:"

A few words on "Banbury Cakes," and I have done. The earliest mention of them I am aware of (next to that in Camden's Britannia, published by Philemon Holland in 1608, and already referred to), is by Ben Jonson, in his Bartholomew Fair, written 1614; where he introduces "Zeal-of-the-Land Busy" as "a Banbury Man," who "was a baker—but he does dream now, and see visions: he has given over his trade, out of a scruple he took, that, in spiced conscience, those cakes he made were served to bridales, maypoles, morrisses, and such profane feasts and meetings." I do not know whether the sale of Banbury cakes flourished in the last century; but I find recorded in Beesley's Hist. of Banbury (published 1841) that Mr. Samuel Beesley sold in 1840 no fewer than 139,500 twopenny cakes; and in 1841, the sale had increased by at least a fourth. In Aug. 1841, 5,400 were sold weekly; being shipped to America, India, and even Australia. I fancy their celebrity in early days can hardly parallel this, but I do not vouch for the statistics.

J. R. M., M.A.

DR. SOUTH VERSUS GOLDSMITH, TALLEYRAND, ETC.

(Vol. vi., p. 575.)

This remarkable saying, like most good things of that kind, has been repeated by so many distinguished writers, that it is impossible to trace it to any one in particular, in the precise form in which it is now popularly received. I shall quote, in succession, all those who appear to have expressed it in words of the same, or a nearly similar, import, and then leave your readers to judge for themselves.

I cannot help thinking that the first place should be assigned to Jeremy Taylor, as he must have had the sentiment clearly in view in the following sentence:

"There is in mankind an universal contract implied in all their intercourses; and words being instituted to declare the mind, and for no other end, he that hears me speak hath a right in justice to be done him, that, as far as I can, what I speak be true; for else he by words does not know your mind, and then as good and better not speak at all."

Next we have David Lloyd, who in his State Worthies thus remarks of Sir Roger Ascham:

"None is more able for, yet none is more averse to, that circumlocution and contrivance wherewith some men shadow their main drift and purpose. Speech was made to open man to man, and not to hide him; to promote commerce, and not betray it."

Dr. South, Lloyd's cotemporary, but who survived him more than twenty years, expresses the sentiment in nearly the same words:

"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."

The next writer in whom this thought occurs is Butler, the author of Hudibras. In one of his prose essays on the "Modern Politician," he says:

"He (the modern politician) believes a man's words and his meanings should never agree together: for he that says what he thinks lays himself open to be expounded by the most ignorant; and he who does not make his words rather serve to conceal than discover the sense of his heart, deserves to have it pulled out, like a traitor's, and shown publicly to the rabble."

Young has the thought in the following couplet on the duplicity of courts:

From Young it passed to Voltaire, who in the dialogue entitled "Le Chapon et la Poularde," makes the former say of the treachery of men:

"Ils n'emploient les paroles que pour déguiser leurs pensées."

Goldsmith, about the same time, in his paper in The Bee, produces it in the well-known words:

"Men who know the world hold that the true use of speech is not so much to express our wants, as to conceal them."

Then comes Talleyrand, who is reported to have said:

"La parole n'a été donnée à l'homme que pour déguiser sa pensée."

The latest writer who adopts this remark without acknowledgment is, I believe, Lord Holland. In his Life of Lope de Vega he says of certain Spanish writers, promoters of the cultismo style:

"These authors do not avail themselves of the invention of letters for the purpose of conveying, but of concealing, their ideas."

From these passages (some of which have already appeared in Vol. i., p. 83) it will be seen that the germ of the thought occurs in Jeremy Taylor; that Lloyd and South improved upon it; that Butler, Young and Goldsmith repeated it; that Voltaire translated it into French; that Talleyrand echoed Voltaire's words; and that it has now become so familiar an expression, that any one may quote it, as Lord Holland has done, without being at the trouble of giving his authority.

If, from the search for the author, we turn to consider the saying itself, we shall find that its practical application extends not merely to every species of equivocation, mental reservation, and even falsehood; but comprises certain forms of speech, which are intended to convey the contrary of what they express. To this class of words the French have given the designation of contre-vérité; and, to my surprise, I find that they include therein the expression amende honorable. Upon this point the Grammaire des Grammaires, by Girault Duvivier, has these remarks:

"La contre-vérité a beaucoup de rapport avec l'ironie. Amende honorable, par exemple, est une contre-vérité, une vérité prise dans un sens opposé à celui de son énonciation; car, au lieu d'être honorable, elle est infamante, déshonorante."

I have some doubts as to whether this meaning of amende honorable be in accordance with our English notion of its import; and I shall be thankful to any of your readers who will help me to a solution. I always understood that the term honorable, in this expression, was to be taken in its literal sense, namely, that the person who made an open avowal of his fault, or tendered an apology for it, was acting, in that respect, in strict conformity with the rules of honour. It is possible that, at first, the amende honorable may have been designed as a "peine infamante;" but its modern acceptation would seem to admit of a more liberal construction.

There are other expressions, framed upon this "lucus a non lucendo" principle, which may fairly be classed among contre-vérités. The French say that a thing is à propos de bottes, when it is altogether inappropriate. We all use the formula of "your most obedient, humble servant," even when we intend anything but humility or obedience.

Henry H. Breen.

St. Lucia.

IRISH RHYMES.

(Vol. vi., pp. 431. 539. 605.)

Mr. Cuthbert Bede (Vol. vi., p. 605.) says "he thinks A. B. R. would have to search a long time, before he found, in the pages of Pope, such brogue-inspired rhymes as rake well and sequel, starve it and deserve it, charge ye and clergy, and others quoted by him at p. 431." Among the latter, I presume he chiefly relies on the rhymes satire and hater, creature and nature.

Of all these I am able to adduce parallel instances both from Dryden and Pope. And first, as to rake well and sequel. Mr. Bede is, of course, aware that these are double rhymes; that quel and well are good English rhymes; and that the brogue betrays itself only in the first syllable of each, rake and se. It is, in fact, the same sort of rhyme as break and weak, which is of such frequent occurrence both in Dryden and Pope. Here is an example from each:

The next "brogue-inspired rhyme" is starve it and deserve it. Here, as in the former instance, the last syllables rhyme correctly, and the objection is confined to starve and deserve. Let us see what Dryden says to this:

And Pope:

Of this species of rhyme I have noted three other instances in Dryden, and two in Pope.

As regards the rhyme charge ye and clergy, no instance, in the same words, occurs in Dryden or Pope. They did not write much in that sort of doggerel. But the brogue, even here, is nothing more than the confounding of the sounds of a and e, which is so beautifully exemplified in the following couplet in Dryden:

Next, we have the rhyme satire and hater. The following in Dryden is quite as bad, if not worse:

Of this rhyme satire and nature, I can adduce two other instances from Dryden.

In the same category we must place nature and creature, nature and feature. Here is an example from Dryden; and I can bring forward two others:

And here is one from Pope:

Can Mr. Bede produce anything to match the following sample of the crater, to be found in our most polished English poet?

It will be seen, from the foregoing quotations, that the rhymes described as Irish were, a century and a half ago, common to both countries,—a fact which Mr. Bede was probably not sufficiently aware of when he introduced the subject in "N. & Q." For obvious reasons, the use of such rhymes, at the present day, would be open to the imputation of "Irishism;" but it was not so in the days of Swift.

Henry H. Breen.

St. Lucia.

In a former Number I drew attention to that peculiar fondness for "Irish rhymes" which is more evident in Swift than in any other poet; and another correspondent afterwards gave examples to show that "our premier poet, Pope," sometimes tripped in the same Hibernian manner. In looking over an old volume of the New Monthly Magazine, during the time of its being edited by the poet Campbell, I have stumbled upon a passage which is so apropos to the subject referred to, that I cannot resist quoting it; and independent of its bearing on our Irish rhyming discussion, the passage has sufficient interest to excuse my making a Note of it. It occurs in one of a series of papers called "The Family Journal," supposed to have been written by the immediate descendants of the "Will Honeycomb" of the Spectator. A dinner-party is assembled at Mr. Pope's, when the conversation takes this turn:

"Mr. Walscott asked if he (Dryden) was an Englishman or an Irishman, for he never could find out. 'You would find out,' answered Mr. Pope, 'if you heard him talk, for he cannot get rid of the habit of saying a for e. He would be an Englishman with all his heart, if he could; but he is an Irishman, that is certain, and with all his heart too in one sense, for he is the truest patriot that country ever saw.... You must not talk to him about Irish rhymes,' added Mr. Pope, 'any more than you must talk to me about the gods and abodes in my Homer, which he quarrels with me for. The truth is, we all write Irish rhymes, and the Dean contrives to be more exact that way than most of us.' 'What!' said Mr. Walscott, 'does he carry his Irish accent into his writings, and yet think to conceal himself?' Mr. Pope read to us an odd kind of Latin-English effusion of the Dean's, which made us shake with laughter. It was about a consultation of physicians. The words, though Latin in themselves, make English when put together; and the Hibernianism of the spelling is very plain. I remember a taste of it. A doctor begins by inquiring,

"'Is his Honor sic? Præ lætus felis pulse. It do es beat veris loto de.'

"Here de spells day. An Englishman would have used the word da.

"'No,' says the second doctor; 'no, notis as qui cassi e ver feltu metri it,' &c.

"Metri for may try.

"Mr. Pope told us that there were two bad rhymes in the Rape of the Lock, and in the space of eight lines:

"Mr. Walscott. 'These would be very good French rhymes.'

"Mr. Pope. 'Yes, the French make a merit of necessity, and force their poverty upon us for riches. But it is bad in English. However, it is too late to alter what I wrote. I now care less about them, notwithstanding the Doctor. When I was a young man, I was for the free disinvolte way of Dryden, as in the Essay on Criticism; but the town preferred the style of my pastorals, and somehow or other I agreed with them. I then became very cautious, and wonder how those lines in the Lock escaped me. But I have come to this conclusion, that when a man has established his reputation for being able to do a thing, he may take liberties. Weakness is one thing, and the carelessness of power another.'"—New Monthly Magazine, vol. xiii. (1825), pp. 551, 552.

With regard to the French rhyme, I see, in a note to Odes and other Poems, by Henry Neele, 1821, that he apologises for rhyming multitude with solitude, by saying:

"It is of that kind which is very common in French, but I fear hardly justified by English practice. Still, 'La rime est une esclave, et ne doit qu'obéir.'"

I should also like to know the author of the clever series of papers from which I have quoted.

Cuthbert Bede, B.A.

COUNT GONDOMAR.

(Vol. v., p. 489.)

Your correspondent W. Stanley Simmonds will find a lengthy account of this notable Spanish Don—Diego Sarmiento de Acuña, Conde de Gondomar—in the Nobiliario genealogico de los Reyes y Titulos de España of Lopez de Haro, folio, Madrid, 1622, vol. i. pp. 236-238. In this notice he chiefly figures, strange to say, as a military character! At the ripe age of seventeen this "famous captain" is said to have chastised the insolence of that bold "English pirate, Francisco Draques," who in 1584 had had the temerity to land somewhere near Bayona, his sole object being of course plunder. Don Diego guarded well his territory of Tuy when the same formidable "dragon," in the year 1589, made his appearance before Coruña; and again in 1596, when the English Armada visited ill-fated Cadiz. Being a person of "great parts," the Count was despatched to England as ambassador in 1613, and during the five years that he resided in this country, "the king and his nobility showered upon him favours and honours innumerable." He once told James that the flour of England (meaning the gentry) was very fine, but the bran (meaning the common people) was very coarse; "La harina de Inglatierra es muy delgada y fina, pero el afrecho es muy grossero,"—for Gondomar, like the learned Isaac Casaubon, had been subject to the grossest insults from the London rabble. We next find ranked among his praiseworthy deeds the following atrocious one:

"Hizo cortar la cabeça al General Ingles Wbaltero Rale (Sir Walter Raleigh) por aver intentado descubrimiento en las Indias Occidentales de Castilla a su partida."

Another meritorious action is added:

"A su instancia perdonó la Magestad de aquel Rey (James I.) a sesenta sacerdotes que estavan presos condenados por causa de la religion, y a otros mucho Catolicos, passandolos todos consigo a Flandes."

The title of Count Gondomar was conferred upon him by Philip III. in 1617, but the date of his death is still a desideratum. Many anecdotes concerning him are to be seen scattered in Howel's Treatise of Ambassadors.

W. M. R. E.

DOOR-HEAD INSCRIPTIONS.

(Vol. vi., p. 543.)

B. B. Woodward (urged, probably, by R. Rawlinson's question in Vol. vi., p. 412.) sends you the following inscription,

copied from over the entrance to an old hostel in the town of Wymondham, Norfolk. He says he quotes from memory.

Vol. vii., p. 23., you give an English translation of the inscription:

but suggest that "hirudo" should be "hirundo," and produce some apt classical quotations supposing it may be so, requesting Mr. Woodward to look again at the original inscription.

In a recent Number (Vol. vii., p. 190.) Mr. Woodward appears to have done this, and sends you the inscriptions correctly (as I beg to vouch, having often read and copied it, and living within four miles of the spot), thus:

Permit me to add to this corroboration, that I should venture a different translation of the word "hospes" from your correspondent's, and render the notice thus:

taking "hospes" not as guest but host, and the literal words, "My servant is not a dormouse, nor (I) the host a leech."

Ainsworth gives authority for "hospes" meaning host as well as guest, and quotes Ovid's Metamorphoses in support of it.

John P. Boileau.

Ketteringham Park, Wymondham, Norfolk.

With due respect to your correspondent A. B. R., the word "hospes" most probably means host, not guest.

In Blomfield's Norfolk (but I cannot now lay my finger on the passage) the line is given as an inscription on the lintel of a door of an ancient hostelry, carved in oak. If so, the line may be rendered—

But, on the supposition that guest is the proper meaning, "hirudo" might be taken in the sense of a greedy guest, although this would not be complimentary to the older hospitality. And even in the sense of gossiping, "hirudo" would not be so inappropriate an imitation of the "recitator acerbus" at the conclusion of the Ars Poetica:

E. L. B.

Ruthin.

PHOTOGRAPHIC NOTES AND QUERIES.

Photographic Gun-Cotton.—The "doctors differ" not a little in their prescriptions for preparing the best gun-cotton for photographic use. How shall the photographer decide between them?

Dr. Diamond ("N. & Q.," Vol. vi., p. 277.) says (I quote briefly), "Pour upon 100 grains of cotton an ounce and a half of nitric acid, previously mixed with one ounce of strong sulphuric acid. Knead it with glass rods during five minutes," &c.

Mr. Hunt, quoting, (apparently with approbation) from Mr. Archer, says (p. 260., 3rd edit.), "Take one ounce by measure of nitric acid, mixed with one ounce by measure of ordinary sulphuric acid, and add to them eighty grains of cotton; well stir," &c., "for not more than FIFTEEN SECONDS," &c. "It will be seen that the cotton is not exposed to the action of the mixed acids in this last mode longer than is necessary to saturate the cotton; should the action be continued further, the solubility of the cotton is entirely lost."

Not only is the order of manipulation different (a point probably not material), but the time between "five minutes" and "fifteen seconds" must exercise a most important influence on the result. Who is right?

Cokely.

Sealing-wax for Baths.—I notice in your answers to correspondents (No. 176., p. 274.), that you inform H. Henderson that glass may be cemented for baths with sealing-wax. May I recommend to H. Henderson the use of gutta percha, instead of glass, for that purpose? Sheet gutta percha is now very cheap, and the baths are most easily made. I have had one of my own making in constant use since last July, having never emptied it but twice, to filter the nitrate of silver solution. It is not liable to breakage. The joinings are much less liable to leakage. And when it is necessary to heat slightly the silver solution (as it has been during the late cold weather), I have adopted the following simple plan: Heat moderately a stout piece of plate glass; plunge it into the bath; repeat the operation according to the size of bath. It is very useful to make a gutta percha cap to cover over the bath when not in use; it protects it from dust and evaporation, and saves the continual loss of materials arising from pouring the solution backwards and forwards. For home-work I have reduced the whole operation to a very simple system. My bath, hypo-soda, developing fluid (of which, as it keeps so long, I make ten ounces at a time), are always ready in a small closet in my study. These I arrange on my study-table: a gutta percha tray, a brass levelling-stand upon it, a jug of soft water, and half-a-dozen small plates to place my pictures on, after treating them with the hypo-solution (for, to save time, I do not finish washing them until I have done all the pictures I require). All these things I can prepare and arrange in less than ten minutes, and can as easily return them to their places afterwards.

With regard to Mr. Mabley's process, described in "N. & Q.," No. 176., p. 267., as I am but a beginner myself, and have much to learn, I should be sorry to condemn it; but I should fear that his pictures would not exhibit sufficient contrast in the tints. Nor do I see the advantage the pictures would possess, if they did, over positives taken by our process. We amateurs in the country labour at present under great disadvantages, some of which I think the Photographic Society will remove. I am myself quite unable to form an idea what the collodion pictures done by first-rate photographers are like. All the positives done by amateurs in this part of the world, and developed by pyrogallic acid, which I have seen, present a dirty brown hue, by no means pleasing or artistic; and I have seen but very few, either developed by pyrogallic acid or protosulphate of iron, free from blemishes. I think if we were to act upon the suggestion made in "N. & Q." some time back, and send the editor a specimen of our performances, it would be a slight return for his endeavours in our behalf; and he would, I doubt not, honestly tell us whether our pictures were tolerable or not. I, for one, shall be very happy to do so.

J. L. Sisson.

Edingthorpe Rectory.

Developing Chamber.—I think Mr. Sisson will find some difficulty in applying his very excellent idea of a sheet India rubber lighting medium to his portable laboratory, as the vapour of the ether will act upon it and render it sticky and useless after one or two usings. Allow me to suggest what I am in the habit of using, viz. a double layer of yellow glazed calico, stuck together with a little common drying oil, and allowed to dry for a few days: this causes a perfect exclusion of the actinic rays, and is very durable.

F. Maxwell Lyte.

Falkland, Torquay.

The Black Tints on Photographic Positives.—A correspondent having inquired how these were obtained, and another replying that it was caused by starch, I beg to offer a process to your readers as to how they may obtain those carbonic tints; though I must premise that the process requires some skill, and is not always successful, though always sure to make them black: but on occasions of failure the lights sink, and the brilliancy of the picture is lost. That it is not starch in the French process, unless that vehicle contains some preparation, I am tolerably certain; the chloride of barium will often produce black images, though very uncertain; and the black process as given by Le Gray is uncertain also. For myself, I generally prefer the colour given by ammoniac salt; it is artistical and sufficient for any purpose. The present process, which I use myself when I require a black colour, with its imperfections, I offer to the photographic readers of "N. & Q.," and here it is.

Take a two-ounce vial, and have some powdered litharge of lead, by some called gold or scale litharge; pound it fine in a Wedgewood mortar, and put in the vial about one scruple; pour on it about half an ounce of Beaufoy's acetic acid, but do not replace the cork or stopper, as the gas evolved is very active, and will burst the vial, placing the operator's eyes in jeopardy; agitate and allow it to stand some hours to settle, or leave it till next day, when it will be better for the purpose: then decant the clear part and throw the fæces away, return the solution into the bottle, and fill up with distilled water. The positive paper being now prepared with the ammonio-nitrate of silver, and placed as usual in the sun, the artist must remove it when a tolerably distinct image is visible, but not altogether up: this is one of the niceties of the process; if it is too much done the blacks will be too black, and if not enough they will be feeble and want richness; it is when a visible image of the whole is developed: at this point put the positive into cold water; this will remove a great deal of the silver that has not been acted upon by the light: let it soak three or four minutes; take it out and blot off the water, laying a clean piece of paper below. Now pour a small quantity of the solution of lead on one end, and with a glass rod pass it carefully over every part; blot it off, and giving the paper a little time to dry partially, pass over a solution of newly made gallic acid; the shadows will rapidly become perfectly blank, and the picture will come up. But another nicety in the process is the point at which it must be plunged into hyposulphite of soda solution; if plunged in too soon the black will be mingled with the sepia tints, and if too late the whole tint will be too black. I offer it, however, because I know its capabilities of improvement, and the intensity of the black is sometimes beautiful: it is better suited for architectural subjects, where there is but little sky, as it will lay a faint tint over it; but if a sky is attempted, it must be kept under by a brush with a little hyposulphite of soda solution, touching it carefully. The time it will take in becoming black will not exceed one minute; but as the eyesight is the guide, the moment the tints have changed from red to black is the proper time to arrest its further progress: the combination thus obtained will not change, nor, I believe, become faint by time; but I repeat it may be much improved, and if any abler hand, or one with better means at his disposal, will take the trouble to examine its capabilities, I shall be very thankful for his notes on the subject.

N.B. The solution of lead must contain acid; and if by keeping it does not change litmus-paper, acid must be added till it does.

Weld Taylor.

7. Conduit Street West.