Replies.

CORRESPONDENCE OF CRANMER AND CALVIN.

(Vol. vii., p. 501.)

The question put by C. D., respecting the existence of letters said to have passed between Archbishop Cranmer and Calvin, and to exist in print at Geneva, upon the seeming sanction given by our liturgy to the belief that baptism confers regeneration, is a revival of an inquiry made by several persons about ten years ago. It then induced M. Merle d'Aubigné to make the search of which C. D. has heard; and the result of that search was given in a communication from the Protestant historian to the editor of the Record, bearing date April 22, 1843.

"Sic correctæ sunt externæ superstitiones, ut residui maneant innumeri surculi, qui assidue pullulent. Imo ex corruptelis papatus audio relictum esse congeriem, quæ non obscuret modo, sed propemodum obruat purum et genuinum Dei cultum."

Part of this letter, but with important omissions, had been published by Dean Jenkyns in 1833. (Cranmer's Remains, vol. i. p. 347.) M. d'Aubigné's communication gave the whole of it; and it ought to have appeared in the Parker Society volume of original letters relative to the English Reformation. That volume contains one of Calvin's letters to the Protector Somerset; but omits another, of which Merle d'Aubigné's communication supplied a portion, containing this important sentence:

"Quod ad formulam precum et rituum ecclesiasticorum, valde probo ut certa illa extet, a qua pastoribus discedere in functione sua non liceat, tam ut consulatur quorumdam simplicitati et imperitiæ, quam ut certius ita constet omnium inter se ecclesiarum consensus."

Another portion of a letter from Calvin, communicated by D'Aubigné, is headed in the Record "Cnoxo et gregalibus, S. D.;" but seems to be the one cited in the Parker Society, vol. ii. of Letters, pp. 755-6, notes 941, as a letter to Richard Cox and others; so that Cnoxo should have been Coxo.

The same valuable communication farther contained the letter of Cranmer inviting Calvin to unite with Melancthon and Bullinger in forming arrangements for holding a Protestant synod in some safe place; meaning in England, as he states more expressly to Melancthon. This letter, however, had been printed entire by Dean Jenkyns, vol. i. p. 346.; and it is given, with an English translation, in the Parker Society edition of Cranmer's Works as Letter ccxcvii., p. 431. It is important, as proving that Heylyn stated what was untrue, Eccles. Restaur., p. 65.; where he has said, "Calvin had offered his assistance to Archbishop Cranmer. But the archbishop knew the man, and refused his offer." Instead of such an offer, Calvin replied courteously and affectionately to Cranmer's invitation; but says, "Tenuitatem meam facturam spero, ut mihi parcatur ... Mihi utinam par studii ardori suppeteret facultas." This reply, the longest letter in their correspondence, is printed in the note attached to Cranmer's letter (Park. Soc., as above, p. 432.; and a translation of it in Park. Soc. Original Letters, vol. ii. p. 711.: and there are extracts from it in Jenkyns, p. 346., n.p.). D'Aubigné gave it entire; but has placed both Calvin's letters to the archbishop before the latter's epistle to him, to which they both refer.

Henry Walter.

"POPULUS VULT DECIPI."

(Vol. vii., p. 572.)

If Mr. Temple will turn to p. 141. of Mathias Prideaux's Easy and Compendious Introduction for reading all Sorts of Histories, 6th edit., Oxford, 1682, small 4to., he will find his Query thus answered:

"It was this Pope's [Paul IV.] Legate, Cardinal Carafa, that gave this blessing to the devout Parisians, Quandoquidem populus decipi vult, decipiatur. Inasmuch as this people will be deceived, let them be deceived."

This book of Prideaux's is full of mottoes, of which I shall give a few instances. Of Frederick Barbarosa "his saying was, Qui nescit dissimulare, nescit imperare:" of Justinian "His word was, Summum jus, summa injuria—The rigour of the law may prove injurious to conscience:" of Theodosius II. "His motto was, Tempori parendum—We must fit us (as far as it may be done with a good conscience) to the time wherein we live, with Christian prudence:" of Nerva "His motto sums up his excellencies, Mens bona regnum possidet—My mind to me a kingdom is:" of Richard Cœur de Lion, "The motto of Dieu et mon droit is attributed to him; ascribing the victory he had at Gisors against the French, not to himself, but to God and His might."

Eirionnach.

Cardinal Carafa seems to have been the author of the above memorable dictum. Dr. John Prideaux thus alludes to the circumstance:

"Cardinalis (ut ferunt) quidam μετὰ πολλῆς φαντασίας Lutetiam aliquando ingrediens, cum instant importunius turbæ ut benedictionem impertiret: Quandoquidem (inquit) hic populus vult decipi, decipiatur in nomine Diaboli."—Lectiones Novem, p. 54.: Oxoniæ, 1625, 4to.

I must also quote from Dr. Jackson:

"Do all the learned of that religion in heart approve that commonly reported saying of Leo X., 'Quantum profuit nobis fabula Christi,' and yet resolve (as Cardinal Carafa did, Quoniam populus iste vult decipi, decipiatur) to puzzle the people in their credulity?"—Works, vol. i. p. 585.: Lond. 1673, fol.

The margin directs me to the following passage in Thuanus:

"Inde Carafa Lutetiam regni metropolim tanquam Pontificis legatus solita pompa ingreditur, ubi cum signum crucis, ut fit, ederet, verborum, quæ proferri mos est, loco, ferunt eum, ut erat securo de numine animo et summus religionis derisor, occursante passim populo et in genua ad ipsius conspectum procumbente, sæpius secreta murmuratione hæc verba ingeminasse: Quandoquidem populus iste vult decipi, decipiatur."—Histor., lib. xvii., ad ann. 1556, vol. i. p. 521.: Genevæ, 1626, fol.

Robert Gibbings.

LATIN—LATINER.

(Vol. vii., p. 423.)

Latin was likewise used for the language or song of birds:

Chaucer, it will be observed, uses the Anglo-Saxon form of the word. Leden was employed by the Anglo-Saxons in the sense of language generally, as well as to express the Latin tongue.

In the German version of Sir Tristram, Latin is also used for the song of birds, and is so explained by Ziemann:

"Latin, Latein; für jede fremde eigenthümliche Sprache, selbst für den Vogelgesang. Tristan und Isolt, 17365."—Ziemann, Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch.

Spenser, who was a great imitator of Chaucer, probably derives the word leden or ledden from him:

In the last passage, perhaps, meaning, knowledge, best expresses the sense. Ledden may have been one of the words which led Ben Jonson to charge Spenser with "affecting the ancients." However, I find it employed by one of his cotemporaries, Fairfax:

The expression lede, in lede, which so often occurs in Sir Tristram, may also have arisen from the Anglo-Saxon form of the word Latin. Sir W. Scott, in his Glossary, explains it: "Lede, in lede. In language, an expletive, synonymous to I tell you." The following are a few of the passages in which it is found:

It is not necessary to descant on thieves' Latin, dog-Latin, Latin de Cuisine, &c.; but I should be glad to learn when dog-Latin first appeared in our language.

E. M. B.

Lincoln.

JACK.

(Vol. vii., p. 326.)

The list of Jacks supplied by your correspondent John Jackson is amusing and curious. A few additions towards a complete collection may not be altogether unacceptable or unworthy of notice.

Supple (usually pronounced souple) Jack, a flexible cane; Jack by the hedge, a plant (Erysimum cordifolium); the jacks of a harpsichord; jack, an engine to raise ponderous bodies (Bailey); Jack, the male of birds of sport (Ditto); Jack of Dover, a joint twice dressed (Ditto, from Chaucer); jack pan, used by barbers (Ditto); jack, a frame used by sawyers. I have also noted Jack-Latin, Jack-a-nod, but cannot give their authority or meaning.

The term was very familiar to our older writers. The following to Dodsley's Collection of old Plays (1st edition, 1744) may assist in explaining its use:

Vol. I.— Page 45. Jack Strawe. Page 65. New Jack. Page 217. Sir Jacke. Page 232. Jack Fletcher. Page 263. Jacknapes. Page 271. Jack Sauce.

Vol. II.— Page 139. Clapper Jack.

Vol. III.— Page 34. Prating Jack. Page 64. Jack-a-lent. Page 168. His Jacks. Page 214. Black Jacks.

Vol. V.— Page 161. Every Jack. Page 341. Skip-Jack.

Vol. VI.— Page 290. Jack Sauce. Page 325. Flap-Jacks. Page 359. Whirling Jacks.

Vol. VIII.— Page 55. Jack Sauce.

Vol. X.— Pages 46. 49. His Jack.

Your correspondent is perhaps aware that Dr. Johnson is disposed to consider the derivation from John to be an error, and rather refers the word to the common usage of the French word Jacques (James). His conjecture seems probable, from many of its applications in this language. Jacques, a jacket, is decidedly French; Jacques de mailles equally so; and the word Jacquerie embraces all the catalogue of virtues and vices which we connect with our Jack.

On the other hand, John, in his integrity, occurs familiarly in John Bull, John-a-Nokes, John Doe, John apple, John Doree, Blue John, John Trot, John's Wort, John-a-dreams, &c.; and Poor John is found in Dodsley, vol. viii. pp. 197. 356.

C. H. P.

Brighton.

PASSAGE IN ST. JAMES.

(Vol. vii., p. 549)

On referring to the passage cited by S. S. S. in Bishop Taylor's Holy Dying, vol. iv. p. 345. (Heber's edit.), I find I had marked two passages in St. James's Epistle as being those to which, in all probability, the bishop alluded; one in the first chapter, and one in the third. In the commencement of his Epistle St. James exhorts his hearers to exercise patience in all the worldly accidents that might befal them; to resign themselves into God's hands, and accept in faith whatever might happen. He then proceeds:

"If any of you lack wisdom" (prudentia ad dijudicandum quid in singulis circumstantiis agendum sit—Grotius), "let him ask of God" (postulet ab eo, qui dat, nempe Deo: ut intelligas non aliunde petendum sapientiam.—Erasmus).

Again, in chap. iii. 13., he asks:

"Who is a wise man, and endued with knowledge among you" (ἐπιστήμων, i. e. sciens, sive scientià præditus, quod recentiores vocant scientificus.—Erasmus).

He bids him prove his wisdom by submission to the truth; for that cunning craftiness which manifests itself only in generating heresies and contentions, is—

"Not from above," ἀλλ' ἐπίγειος, Ψυχικὴ (animalis,—ista sapientia a natura est, non a Deo) δαιμονιώδης.—Vid. Eph. ii. 2., and 2 Cor. iv. 4.

These passages would naturally afford ample scope for the exuberant fancy of ancient commentators; and it is not unreasonable to suppose that Bishop Taylor may have had the remarks of one of these writers running in his mind, when he quoted St. James as reprobating, with such minuteness of detail, the folly of consulting oracles, spirits, sorcerers, and the like.

I have not, at present, access to any of the commentators to whom I allude; so I am unable to confirm this suggestion.

H. C. K.

—— Rectory, Hereford.

There is no uncanonical epistle attributed to this apostle, although the one received by the English from the Greek and Latin churches was pronounced uncanonical by Luther. The passage to which Jeremy Taylor refers, is iv. 13, 14., which he interpreted as referring to an unlawful inquiry into the future:

"Go to now, ye that say, To-day or to-morrow we will go into such a city and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow: for what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away."

Hug (Wait's Trans., vol. ii. p. 579.) considers the apostle as reproving the Jews for attempting to evade the national punishment threatened them, by removing out of their own country of Judæa. Probably, however, neither Taylor nor Hug are correct in departing from the more obvious signification, which refers to the mercantile character of the twelve tribes (i. 1.), arising mainly out of the fact of their captivities and dispersions (διασπορᾷ). The practice is still common in the East for merchants on a large and small scale to spend a whole season or year in trafficking in one city, and passing thence to another with the varied products suitable respectively to each city; and such products were interchanged without that extreme division of labour or despatch which the magnitude of modern commerce requires. The whole passage, from James iv. 13. to v. 6. inclusive, must be taken as specially applicable to the sins of mercantile men whose works of righteousness St. James (iii. 17-20.) declared to be wanting, in proof of their holding the faith necessary, according, to St. Paul (Rom. iii. 27.), for their salvation.

T. J. Buckton.

Birmingham.

FAITHFULL TEATE.

(Vol. vii., p. 529.)

"The worthy Faithfull Teate indulges himself in the then prevailing bad taste of anagramising his name: see the result after the title. A better play upon his name is that of Jo. Chishull, who, in lashing the prophane wits of the day, and eulogising the author, has the following comical allusion thereto:

The Ter Tria was originally published in 1658; its author, F. T., was the father of the better known Nahum Tate, the co-translator of the last authorised version of the Psalms,—a Teat which, following the metaphor of Mr. Chishull, has nourished not a few generations of the godly, but now, like a sucked orange, thrown aside for the more juicy productions of our modern Psalmists. Old Teate (or Tate, as the junior would have it) is styled in this book, "preacher at Sudbury." He seems subsequently to have removed to Ireland, where his son Nahum, the laureat, was born.

J. O.

PARVISE.

(Vol. viii., p. 528.)

Parvise seems to have been a porch, used as a school or place for disputation. The parvise mentioned in the Oxford "Little-Go" (Responsions) Testamur is alluded to in Bishop Cooper's book against Private Mass (published by the Parker Society). He ridicules his opponent's arguments as worthy of "a sophister in the parvyse schools." The Serjeant-at-law, in Chaucer's Canterbury Pilgrims, had been often at the paruise. In some notes on this character in a number of the Penny Magazine for 1840 or 1841, it is farther remarked that the choristers of Norwich Cathedral were formerly taught in the parvise, i. e. porch. The chamber over a porch in some churches may have been the school meant. Instances of this arrangement were to be found at Doncaster Church (where it was used as a library), and at Sherborne Abbey Church. The porch here was Norman, and the chamber Third Pointed; and at the restoration lately effected the pitch of the roof was raised, and the chamber removed.

B. A. Oxon.

Oxford University.

I believe that the parvisus, or paradisus of the Responsions Testamur, is the pro-scholium of the divinity school, otherwise called the "pig-market," from its site having been so occupied up to the year 1554. This is said to be the locality in which the Responsions were formerly held.

It is ordered by the statutes, tit. vi.,—

"Quod priusquam quis ad Gradum Baccalaurei in Artibus admittatur, in Parviso semel Quæstionibus Magistrorum Scholarum respondeat."

However, they go on to direct, "Locus hisce Responsionibus assignetur Schola Metaphysices;" and there they are at present held. (See the Glossary to Tyrwhitt's Chaucer; and also Parker's Glossary of Architecture, ad voc. "Parvise.")

Cheverells.

The term parvise, though used in somewhat different senses by old writers, appears to mean strictly a porch or antechamber. Your correspondent Oxoniensis will find in Parker's Glossary ample information respecting this word, with references to various writers, showing the different meanings which have been attached to it. "Responsions," or the preliminary examinations at Oxford, are said to be held in parviso; that is, in the porch, as it were, or antechamber before the schools, which are the scene of the greater examinations for the degree.

H. C. K.

If your correspondent will refer to the word Parvisium, in the Glossary at the end of Watt's edition of Matthew Paris, he will find a good deal of information. To this I will add that the word is now in use in Belgium in another sense. I saw some years since, and again last summer, in a street leading out of the Grande Place, by one side of the Halle at Bruges, on a house, this notice,—

D. P.

Begbrook.

THE CŒNACULUM OF LIONARDO DA VINCI.

(Vol. vii., pp. 524, 525.)

Mr. Smirke's paper, questioning the received opinion as to the points of time and circumstance expressed in this celebrated fresco, contains the following sentence:

"The work in question is now so generally accessible, through the medium of accurate engravings, that any one may easily exercise his own judgment on the matter."

Having within no very distant period spent an hour or two in examining the original, with copies lying close at hand for the purposes of comparison, allow me to offer you a few impressions of which, while fresh, I "made a note" in an interleaved copy of Bishop Burnet's curious Tour in Italy, which served me as a journal while abroad. Burnet mentions the Dominican Convent at Milan as in his day "very rich." My note is as follows:

"The Dominican convent is now suppressed. It is a cavalry barracks: dragoons have displaced Dominicans. There is a fine cupola to the church, the work of Bramante: in the salle or refectory of this convent was discovered, since Burnet's time, under a coat of wash or plaster, the celebrated fresco of Lionardo da Vinci, now so well known to the world by plates and copies, better finished than the original ever was, in all probability; certainly better than it is now, after abuse, neglect, damp, and, worst of all, restoring, have done their joint work upon it. A visit to this fresco disenchants one wonderfully. It is better to be satisfied with the fine engravings, and let the original live in its ideal excellence. The copyists have taken some liberties, of which these strike me as the chief:

"First, The Saviour's head is put more on one side, in what I would call a more languishing position than its actual one.

"Second, the expression of the figure seated at his left hand is quite changed. In the copies it is a grave, serious, fine face: in the original, though now indistinct, it evidently expressed 'open-mouthed horror' at the declaration, 'One of you shall betray me.'

"Third, Judas in all copies is identified not only by the held bag of money, but by the overturned saltcellar at his elbow. This last is not in the original.

"The whole fresco, though now as well kept as may be, seems spoiling fast. There is a Crucifixion at the other end of the same hall, in much better preservation, though of the same date; and the doorway which the tasteful Dominicans cut in the wall, through the bottom of the painting, is, though blocked up, still quite visible. It is but too probable that the monks valued the absurd and hideous frescoes in the cloisters outside, representing Saint Dominic's miracles! and the Virgin fishing souls out of purgatory with a rosary, beyond Lionardo's great work."

So far my original note, written without supposing that the received idea, as to the subject of the picture, had ever been questioned. In reference to the question raised, however, I will briefly say, that, as recollection serves me, it would require a well-sustained criticism to convince me that the two disciples at the Saviour's right hand were not designed to express the point of action described in the 23rd and 24th verses of chapter xiii. of St. John's Gospel. Possibly Mr. Smirke might favour us with the argument of his MSS. on the group.

A. B. R.

Belmont.

FONT INSCRIPTIONS.

(Vol. vii., p. 408.)

I have in my note-book the following entries:—

Kiddington, Oxon.:

Newark, round the base in black letter:

On a pillar adjoining the font is a brass tablet with this inscription:

"This Font was demolished by the Rebels, May 9, 1646, and rebuilt by the charity of Nicholas Ridley in 1660."

Kirton, Lincoln:

"Orate pro aia Alauni Burton qui fontem istum fieri fec. a.d. mccccv."

Clee, Lincoln:

"The Font is formed of two cylindrical parts, one placed upon the other, over which, in the shaft of the circular column, is inlaid a small piece of marble, with a Latin inscription in Saxon characters, referring to the time of King Richard, and stating it was dedicated to the Holy Trinity and St. Mary, by Hugh Bishop of Lincoln, a.d. 1192."

The above are extracts from books, not copied by me from the fonts.

F. B. Relton.

At Threckingham, Lincolnshire, round the base of the font—

At Little Billing, Northamptonshire,—

"Wilberthus artifex atq; cementarius hunc fabricavit, quisquis suum venit mergere corpus procul dubio capit."

J. P., Jun.

To the list of these should be added the early English font at Keysoe, Beds., noticed in the Ecclesiologist, vol. i. p. 124., and figured in Van Voorst's Baptismal Fonts. It bears the legend in Norman French:

Or, in modern French:

Cheverells.

BURN AT CROYDON.

(Vol. vii., pp. 238. 393.)

The bourne at Croydon is one of the most remarkable of those intermitting springs which issue from the upper part of the chalk strata after long-continued rains.

All porous earth-beds are reservoirs of water, and give out their supplies more or less copiously according to their states of engorgement; and at higher or lower levels, as they are more or less replenished by rain. Rain percolates through the chalk rapidly at all times, it being greatly fissured and cavernous, and finds vent at the bottom of the hills, in ordinary seasons, in the perennial springs which issue there, at the top of the chalk marl, or of the galt (the clay so called) which underlies the chalk. But when long-continued rains have filled the fissures and caverns, and the chinks and crannies of the ordinary vents below are unequal to the drainage, the reservoir as it were overflows, and the superfluity exudes from the valleys and gullies of the upper surface; and these occasional sources continue to flow till the equilibrium is restored, and the perennial vents suffice to carry off the annual supply. Some approach to the full engorgement here spoken of takes place annually in many parts of the chalk districts, where springs break out after the autumnal and winter rains, and run themselves dry again in the course of a few months, or maybe have intermissions of a year or two, when the average falls are short. Thence it is we have so many "Winterbournes" in the counties of Wilts, Hants, and Dorset; as Winterbourne-basset, Winterbourne-gunner, Winterbourne-stoke, &c. (Vide Lewis's Topog. Dict.) The highest sources of the Test, Itchen, and some other of our southern rivers which take their rise in the chalk, are often dry for months, and their channels void of water for miles; failing altogether when the rains do not fill the neighbouring strata to repletion.

In the case of long intermissions, such as occur to the Croydon bourne, it is not wonderful that the sudden appearance of waters in considerable force, where none are usually seen to flow, should give rise to superstitious dread of coming evils. Indeed, the coincidence of the running of the bourne, a wet summer, a worse sowing-season, and a wet cold spring, may well inspire evil forebodings, and give a colourable pretext for such apprehensions as are often entertained on the occurrence of any unusual natural phenomenon. These intermittent rivulets have no affinity, as your correspondent E. G. R. supposes, to subterraneous rivers. The nearest approach to this kind of stream is to be found in the Mole, which sometimes sinks away, and leaves its channel dry between Dorking and Leatherhead, being absorbed into fissures in the chalk, and again discharged; these fissures being insufficient to receive its waters in times of more copious supply. The subterraneous rivers of more mountainous countries are also not to be included in the same category. They have a history of their own, to enlarge on which is not the business of this Note: but it may not be irrelevant to turn the attention for a moment to the use of the word bourne or burn. The former mode of spelling and pronouncing it appears to prevail in the south, and the latter in the north of England and in Scotland; both alike from the same source as the brun or brunen of Germany. The perennial bourne so often affords a convenient natural geographical boundary, and a convenient line of territorial division, that by an easy metonymy it has established itself in our language in either sense, signifying streamlet or boundary-line,—as witness the well-known lines:

M.

CHRISTIAN NAMES.

(Vol. vii., pp. 406. 488, 489.)

The opinion of your correspondents, that instances of persons having more than one Christian name before the last century are, at least, very rare, is borne out by the learned Camden, who, however, enables me to adduce two earlier instances of polyonomy than those cited by J. J. H.:

"Two Christian names," says he (Remaines concerning Britaine, p. 44.), "are rare in England, and I onely remember now his majesty, who was named Charles James, and the prince his sonne Henry Frederic; and among private men, Thomas Maria Wingfield, and Sir Thomas Posthumous Hobby."

The custom must have been still rare at the end of the eighteenth century, for, as we are informed by Moore in a note to his Fudge Family in Paris (Letter IV.):

"The late Lord C. (Castlereagh?) of Ireland had a curious theory about names; he held that every man with three names was a Jacobin. His instances in Ireland were numerous; Archibald Hamilton Rowan, Theobald Wolfe Tone, James Napper Tandy, John Philpot Curran, &c.: and in England he produced as examples, Charles James Fox, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, John Horne Tooke, Francis Burdett Jones," &c.

Perhaps the noble lord thought with Sterne in Tristram Shandy, though the nexus is not easy to discover, that "there is a strange kind of magic bias, which good or bad names irresistibly impose upon our character and conduct," or perhaps he had misread that controverted passage in Plautus (Aulular. Act II. Sc. 4.):

The custom is now almost universal; and as, according to Camden (Remaines, &c., p. 96.),

"Shortly after the Conquest it seemed a disgrace for a gentleman to have but one single name, as the meaner sort and bastards had,"

so now, the tria nomina nobiliorum have become so common, as to render the epigram upon a certain M. L-P. Saint-Florentin, of almost universal applicability as a neat and befitting epitaph.

"On ne lui avait pas épargné," says the biographer of this gentleman (Biographie Universelle, tom. xxxix. p. 573.), "les épigrammes de son vivant; il en parut encore contre lui au moment de sa mort; en voici une:—

William Bates.

Birmingham.

Leopold William Finch, fifth son of Heneage, second Earl of Nottingham, born about the year 1662, and afterwards Warden of All Souls, is an earlier instance of an English person with two Christian names than your correspondent J. J. H. has noticed.

J. B.

WEATHER RULES.

(Vol. vii., p. 522.)

Your correspondent J. A., Jun., makes a Note and asks a question regarding a popular opinion prevalent in Worcestershire, on the subject of a "Sunday's moon," as being one very much addicted to rain. In Sussex that bad repute attaches to the moon that changes on Saturday:

It may be hoped that the time is not far distant when a scientific meteorology will dissipate the errors of the traditional code now in existence. Of these errors none have greater or more extensive prevalence than the superstitions regarding the influence of the moon on the atmospheric phenomena of wet and dry weather. Howard, the author of The Climate of London, after twenty years of close observation, could not determine that the moon had any perceptible influence on the weather. And the best authorities now follow, still more decidedly, in the same train.

"The change of the moon," the expression in general use in predictions of the weather, is idly and inconsiderately used by educated people, without considering that in every phase that planet is the same to us, as a material agent, except as regards the power of reflected light; and no one supposes that moonlight produces wet or dry. Why then should that point in the moon's course, which we agree to call "the new" when it begins to emerge from the sun's rays, have any influence on our weather. Twice in each revolution, when in conjunction with the sun at new, and in opposition at the full, an atmospheric spring-tide may be supposed to exist, and to exert some sort of influence. But the existence of any atmospheric tide at all is denied by some naturalists, and is at most very problematical; and the absence of regular diurnal fluctuations of the barometric pressure favours the negative of this proposition. But, granting that it were so, and that the moon, in what is conventionally called the beginning of its course, and again in the middle, at the full, did produce changes in the weather, surely the most sanguine of rational lunarians would discard the idea of one moon differing from another, except in relation to the season of the year; or that a new moon on the Sabbath day, whether Jewish or Christian, had any special quality not shared by the new moons of any other days of the week.

Such a publication as "N. & Q." is not the place to discuss fully the question of lunar influence. Your correspondent J. A., Jun., and all persons who have inconsiderately taken up the popular belief in moon-weather, will do well to consult an interesting article on this subject (I believe attributed to Sir D. Brewster) in The Monthly Chronicle for 1838; and this will also refer such inquirers to Arago's Annuaire for 1833. There may be later and completer disquisitions on the lunar influences, but they are not known to me.

M.

ROCOCO.

(Vol. i., pp. 321. 356.)

This word is now receiving a curious illustration in this colony of French origin. Rococo—antiquated, old-fashioned—would seem to have become rococo itself; and in its place the negroes have adopted the word entêté, wilful, headstrong, to express, as it were, the persistence of a person in retaining anything that has gone out of fashion. This term was first applied to white hats; and the wearers of such have been assailed from every corner of the streets with the cry of "Entêté chapeau!" It was next applied to umbrellas of a strange colour (the varieties of which are almost without number in this country of the sun); and it has now been extended to every article of wearing apparel of an unfashionable or peculiar shape. A negro woman, appearing with a blue umbrella, has been followed by half a dozen black boys with the cry of "Entêté parasol!" and in order to get rid of the annoyance she had to shut the umbrella and continue her way under the broiling sun. But the term is not always used in derision. A few days ago, a young girl of colour, dressed in the extreme of the fashion, was passing along, when some bystanders began to rally her with the word "Entêté." The girl, perceiving that she was the object of their notice, turned round, and in an attitude of conscious irreproachableness, retorted with the challenge in Creole French, "Qui entêté ça?" But the smiles with which she was greeted showed her (what she had already partly suspected) that their cries of "Entêté" were intended rather to compliment her on the style of her dress.

Henry H. Breen.

St. Lucia.

DESCENDANTS OF JOHN OF GAUNT.

(Vol. vii., p. 41.)

I am gratified to see that Mr. Hardy's documentary researches have confirmed my conjectures as to the erroneous date assigned for the death of the first husband of Jane Beaufort. Perhaps it may be in his power also to rectify a chronological error, which has crept into the account usually given of the family into which one of her sons married. The Peerages all place the death of the last Lord Fauconberg of the original family in 1376, not observing that this date would make his daughter and heiress married to William Nevill, second son of the Earl of Westmoreland and Countess Joane, twenty-five years at the lowest computation; or, if we take the date which they assign for the death of Lord Ferrers of Wemme, forty years older than her husband,—a difference this, which, although perhaps it might not prove an insuperable impediment to marriage where the lady was a great heiress, would undoubtedly put a bar on all hopes of issue: whereas it stands on record that they had a family.

I must take this opportunity of complaining of the manner in which many, if not all these Peerages, are compiled: copying each others' errors, however obvious, without a word of doubt or an attempt to rectify them; though Mr. Hardy's communication, above mentioned, shows that the materials for doing so, in many cases, exist if properly sought. Not to mention minor errors, they sometimes crowd into a given time more generations than could have possibly existed, and sometimes make the generations of a length that has not been witnessed since the patriarchal ages. As instances of the former may be mentioned, the pedigree of the Ferrerses, Earls of Derby (in which eight successions from father to son are given between 1137 and 1265), and those of the Netterville and Tracy families: and of the latter, the pedigree of the Fitzwarines, which gives only four generations between the Conquest and 1314; and that of the Clanricarde family. It is strange that Mr. Burke, who appears to claim descent from the latter, did not take more pains to rectify a point so nearly concerning him; instead of making, as he does in his Peerage, one of the family to have held the title (MacWilliam Eighter) and estates for 105 years!—an absurdity rendered still more glaring by this long-lived gentleman's father having possessed them fifty-four years before him, and his son for fifty-six years after him. If such can be supposed true, the Countess of Desmond's longevity was not so unusual after all.

J. S. Warden.

THE ORDER OF ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM.

(Vol. vii., p. 407.)

May I be allowed to inform your correspondent R. L. P. that he is in error, when supposing that the English knights were deprived of their property by Queen Elizabeth, as it was done by act of parliament in the year 1534, and during the reign of Henry VIII.

For the information sought by your correspondent R. L. P., I would refer him to the following extract taken from Sutherland's History of the Knights of Malta, vol. ii. pp. 114, 115.:

W. W.

La Valetta, Malta.