Minor Queries.

Original Words of old Scotch Airs.—Can any one tell me where the original words of many fine old Scotch airs are to be found? The wretched verses of Allan Ramsay, and others of the same school, are adapted to the "Yellow-haired Laddie," "Ettrick Banks," "The Bush aboon Traquair," "Mary Scott," and hundreds of others. There must exist old words to many of these airs, which at least will possess some local characteristics, and be a blessed change from the "nymphs" and "swains," the "Stephens" and "Lythias," which now pollute and degrade them. Any information on this subject will be received most thankfully. I particularly wish to recover some old words to the air of "Mary Scott." The only verse I remember is this,—

L. M. M. R.

Royal Salutes.—When the Queen arrives at any time in Edinburgh after sunset, it has been remarked that the Castle guns are never fired in salute, in consequence, it is said, of the existence of a general order which forbids the firing of salutes after sunset. Is there such an order in existence? I would farther ask why twenty-one was the number fixed for a royal salute?

S.

"The Negro's Complaint."—Who was the author of this short poem, to be found in all the earlier collection of poetry for the use of schools? It begins thus:

Henry Stephens.

"The Cow Doctor."—Who is the author of the following piece?—The Cow Doctor, a Comedy in Three Acts, 1810. Dedicated to the Rev. Thomas Pennington, Rector of Thorley, Herts, and Kingsdown, Kent; author of Continental Excursions, &c.

S. N.

Soomarokoff's "Demetrius."—Who translated the following drama from the Russian?

Demetrius, a Tragedy, 8vo., 1806, translated by Eustaphiere. This piece, which is a translation from a tragedy of Soomarokoff, one of the most eminent dramatic authors of Russia, is said to be the first (and I think it is still the only) Russian drama of which there is an English translation.

S. N.

Polygamy.—1. Do the Jews at present, in any country, practise polygamy? 2. If not, when and why was that practice discontinued among them? 3. Is there any religious sect which forbids polygamy, besides the Christians (and the Jews, if the Jews do forbid it)? 4. Was Polygamy permitted among the early Christians? Paul's direction to Timothy, that a bishop should be "the husband of one wife," seems to show that it was; though I am aware that the phrase has been interpreted otherwise. 5. On what ground has polygamy become forbidden among Christians? I am not aware that it is directly forbidden by Scripture.

Stylites.

Irish, Anglo-Saxon, Longobardic, and Old English Letters.—I would be glad to know the earliest date in which the Irish language has been discovered inscribed on stone or in manuscript; also the earliest date in which the Anglo-Saxon, Longobardic, and Old English letter has been known in England and Ireland.

E. F.

Youghal.

Description of Battles.—Judging from my own experience, historical details of battles are comparatively unintelligible to non-military readers. Now that, unhappily, we shall probably be compelled to "hear of battles," would not some of our enterprising publishers do well to furnish to the readers of history and of the bulletins, a popular "Guide to the Battle Field," drawn up some talented military officer? It must contain demonstratively clear diagrams, and such explanations of all that needs to be known, as an officer would give, on the spot, to his nonprofessional friend. The effects of eminences, rivers, roads, woods, marshes, &c., should be made plain; in short, nothing should be omitted which is necessary to render an account of a battle intelligible to ordinary readers, instead of being, as is too often the case, a mere chaotic assemblage of words.

Thinks I to Myself.

Do Martyrs always feel Pain?—Is it not possible that an exalted state of feeling—approaching perhaps to the mesmeric state—may be attained, which will render the religious or political martyr insensible to pain? It would be agreeable to think that the pangs of martyrdom were ever thus alleviated. It is certainly possible, by a strong mental effort, to keep pain in subjection during a dental operation. A firmly fixed tooth, under a bungling operator, may be wrenched from the jaw without pain to the patient, if he will only determine not to feel. At least, I know of one such case, and that the effort was very exhausting. In the excitement of battle, wounds are often not felt. One would be glad to hope that Joan of Arc was insensible to the flames which consumed her: and that the recovered nerve which enabled Cranmer to submit his right hand to the fire, raised him above suffering.

Alfred Gatty.

Carronade.—What is the derivation of the term carronade, applied to pieces of ordnance shorter and thicker in the chamber than usual? Here the idea is that they took their name from the Carron foundries, where they were cast. In the early years of the old war-time, there were carron pieces or carron guns, and only some considerable time thereafter carronades. How does this stand? and is there any likelihood of the folk story being true?

C. D. Landry.

Greenock.

Darcy, of Platten, co. Meath.—It is on record that, in the year 1486, the citizens of Dublin, encouraged by the Earl of Kildare and the Archbishop, received Lambert Simnel, and actually crowned him King of England and Ireland in Christ's Church; and that to make the solemnity more imposing, they not only borrowed a crown for the occasion from the head of the image of the Virgin that stood in the church dedicated to her service at Dame's Gate, but carried the young impostor on the shoulders of "a monstrous man, one Darcy, of Platten, in the county of Meath."

Did this "monstrous man" leave any descendants? And if so, is there any representative, and where, at the present day? Platten has long since passed into other hands.

Abhba.

Dorset.—In Byrom's MS. Journal, about to be printed for the Chetham Society, I find the following entry:

"May 18, 1725. I found the effect of last night drinking that foolish Dorset, which was pleasant enough, but did not at all agree with me, for it made me very stupid all day."

Query, What is Dorset?

R. P.

"Vanitatem observare."—Can any of your readers explain the following extract from the Council of Ancyra, A.D. 314? I quote from a Latin translation:

"Mulieribus quoque Christianis non liceat in suis lanificiis vanitatem observare: sed Deum invocent adjutorem, qui eis sapientiam texendi donavit."

What is meant by "vanitatem observare?"

R. H. G.

King's Prerogative.—A writer in the Edinburgh Review, vol. lxxiv. p. 77., asserts, on the authority of Blackstone (but he does not refer to the volume and page of the Commentaries, and I have in vain sought for the passages), that it is to this day a branch of the king's prerogative, at the death of every bishop, to have his kennel of hounds, or a compensation in lieu of it. Does the writer mean, and is it the fact, that if a bishop die without having a kennel of hounds, his executors are to pay the king a compensation in lieu thereof? And if it is, what is the amount of that compensation? Is it merely nominal? I can understand the king claiming a bishop's kennel of hounds or compensation in feudal times, when bishops were hunters (vide Raine's Auckland Castle, a work of great merit, and abounding with much curious information); but to say, to this day it is a branch of the king's prerogative, is an insult alike to our bishops and to religious practices in the nineteenth century. Of hunting bishops in feudal times, I beg to refer your readers, in addition to Mr. Raine's work, to an article in the fifty-eighth volume of the Quarterly Review, p. 433., for an extract from a letter of Peter of Blois to Walter, Bishop of Rochester, who at the age of eighty was a great hunter. Peter was shocked at his lordship's indulgence in so unclerical a sport. It is obvious neither Peter nor the Pope could have heard of the hunting Bishops of Durham.

Fra. Mewburn.

Quotations in Cowper.—Can any of your correspondents indicate the sources of the following quotations, which occur in Cowper's Letters (Hayley's Life and Letters of Cowper, 4 vols., 1812)? In vol. iii. p. 278. the following verses, referring to the Atonement, are cited:

In vol. iv. p. 240. it is stated that Twining applied to Pope's translation of Homer the Latin verse—

L.

Cawley the Regicide.—Mr. Waylen, in his History of Marlborough, just published, shows that Cawley of Chichester, the regicide, has in Burke's Commoners been confounded with Cawley of Burderop, in Wiltshire; and he adds, "the fact that a son of the real regicide (the Rev. John Cawley) became a rector of the neighbouring parish of Didcot," &c. has helped to confound the families. May I ask what is the authority for stating that the Rev. J. Cawley was a son of the regicide?

C. T. R.

Minor Queries with Answers.

Dr. John Pocklington.—Can any of your correspondents oblige me with information respecting the family, or the armorial bearings of Dr. John Pocklington? He wrote Altare Christianum and Sunday no Sabbath. The parliament deprived him of his dignities A.D. 1640; and he died Nov. 14, 1642. Dr. Pocklington descended from Ralph Pocklington, who, with his brother Roger, followed Margaret of Anjou after the battle of Wakefield, A.D. 1460. He is said to have settled in the west, where he lived to have three sons. The family is mentioned in connexion with the county of York, as early as A.D. 1253.

X. Y. Z.

[John Pocklington was first a scholar at Sidney Sussex College, B.D. in 1621, and afterwards a Fellow of Pembroke Hall, Cambridge. He subsequently became Rector of Yelden in Bedfordshire, Vicar of Waresley in Huntingdonshire, prebend of Lincoln, Peterborough, and Windsor; and was also one of the chaplains to Charles I. "On the 15th May, 1611, the Earl of Kent, with consent of Lord Harington, wrote to Sidney College to dispense with Mr. Pocklington's holding a small living with cure of souls. See the original letter in the college treasury, box 1 or 6." (Cole's MSS., vol. xlvi. p.207.). Among the King's Pamphlets in the British Museum is "The Petition and Articles exhibited in Parliament against John Pocklington, D.D., Parson of Yelden, in Bedfordshire, anno 1641." The petition "humbly sheweth, That John Pocklington, D.D., Rector of the parish of Yelden in the county of Bedford, Vicar of Waresley in the county of Huntingdon, Prebend of Lincoln, Peterborough, and Windsor, hath been a chief author and ringleader in all those innovations which have of late flowed into the Church of England." The Articles exhibited (too long to quote) are singularly illustrative of the ecclesiastical usages in the reign of Charles I., and would make a curious appendix to the Rev. H. T. Ellacombe's article at p. 257. of the present Number. Having rendered himself obnoxious to the popular faction by the publication of his Altare Christianum and Sunday no Sabbath, the parliament that met on Nov. 3, 1640, ordered these two works to be burnt by the common hangman in both the Universities, and in the city of London. He died on November 14, and was buried Nov. 16, 1642, in the churchyard of Peterborough Cathedral. On his monumental slab is the following inscription: "John Pocklington, S.S. Theologia Doctor, obiit Nov. 14, 1642." A copy of his will is in the British Museum (Lansdown, 990, p. 74.). It is dated Sept. 6, 1642; and in it bequests are made to his daughters Margaret and Elizabeth, and his sons John and Oliver. His wife Anne was made sole executrix. He orders his body "to be buried in Monk's churchyard, at the foot of those monks martyrs whose monument is well known: let there be a fair stone with a great crosse cut upon it laid on my grave." For notices of Dr. Pocklington, see Willis's Survey of Cathedrals, vol. iii. p. 521.; Walker's Sufferings of the Clergy, Part II. p. 95.; and Fuller's Church History, book xi. cent. xvii. sect. 30-33.]

Last Marquis of Annandale.—1. When and where did he die? 2. Any particulars regarding his history? 3. When and why was Lochwood, the family residence, abandoned? 4. How many marquisses were there, and were any of them men of any note in their day and generation?

Annandale.

[The first marquis was William Johnstone, third Earl of Annandale and Hartfell, who was advanced 4th June, 1701, to the Marquisate of Annandale. He died at Bath, 14th January, 1721, and was succeeded by his son James, who died 21st February, 1730. George, his half-brother, born 29th May, 1720, was the third and last Marquis of Annandale. An inquest from the Court of Chancery, 5th March, 1748, found this marquis a lunatic, and incapable of governing himself and his estate, and that he had been so from the 12th December, 1744. He died at Turnham Green on the 29th April, 1792, in the seventy-second year of his age, and was buried at Chiswick, 7th May following. (Gent. Mag., May, 1792, p. 481.) Since his decease the honours of the house of Annandale have remained dormant, although they have been claimed by several branches of the family. (Burke's Extinct Peerages.) Before the union of the two crowns the Johnstones were frequently wardens of the west borders, and were held in enthusiastic admiration for their exploits against the English, the Douglasses, and other borderers. During the wars between the two nations, they effectually suppressed the plunderers on the borders; hence their device, a winged spur, and their motto, "Alight thieves all," to denote their authority in commanding them to surrender. Lochwood, the ancient seat of the Marquisses of Annandale, was inhabited till 1724, three years after the death of the first marquis, when it was finally abandoned by the family, and suffered gradually to fall into decay. In The New Statistical Account of Scotland, vol. iv. p. 112., we read "that the principal estate in the parish of Moffat has descended to Mr. Hope Johnstone of Annandale, to whom it is believed the titles also, in so far as claimed, of right belong, and whose restoration to the dormant honours of the family would afford universal satisfaction in this part of Scotland; because it is the general feeling that he has a right to them, and that in his family they would not only be supported, but graced." Some farther particulars of the three marquisses will be found in Douglass' Peerage of Scotland (by Wood), vol. i. p. 75., and in The Scots Compendium, edit. 1764, p. 151.]

Heralds' College.—Richard III. incorporated the College of Arms in 1483, and that body consisted of three kings of arms, six heralds, and four pursuivants. Can you inform me of the names of these first members of that Heraldic body?

Escutcheon.

—— Vicarage.

[Mark Noble, in his History of the College of Arms, p. 57., remarks, "There is nothing more difficult than to obtain a true and authentic series of the heralds, previous to the foundation of the College of Arms, or, to speak more properly, the incorporation of that body. Mr. Lant, Mr. Anstis, Mr. Edmondson, and other gentlemen, who had the best opportunities, and whose industry was equal to their advantage, have not been able to accomplish it; and from that time, especially in Richard's reign, it is not practicable. Some idea may be formed of the heraldic body at the commencement of this reign, by observing the names of those who attended the funeral of Edward IV. Sandford and other writers mention Garter, Clarenceux, Norroy, March, and Ireland, kings at arms; Chester, Leicester, Gloucester, and Buckingham, heralds; and Rouge-Croix, Rose-Blanch, Calais, Guisnes, and Harrington, pursuivants."]

Teddy the Tiler.—Who was Teddy the Tiler?

W. P. E.

[This is a fire-and-water farce, taken from the French by G. Herbert Rodwell, Esq., ending with one element and beginning with the other. Mr. Power's performance of Teddy, as many of our readers will remember, kept the audience in one broad grin from beginning to end. It will be found in Cumberland's British Theatre, vol. xxv., with remarks, biographical and critical.]

Duchess of Mazarin's Monument.—I read yesterday, in an interesting French work, that the beautiful Hortense Mancini, a niece of Mazarin, and sister to Mary Mancini, the early love of Louis XIV., after various peregrinations, died at Chelsea, in England, on July 2, 1699. Although not an important question, I think I may venture to ask whether any monument or memorial of this remarkable beauty exists at Chelsea, or in its neighbourhood?

W. Robson.

[Neither Faulkner nor Lysons notices any monumental memorial to the Duchess of Mazarin, whose finances after the death of Charles II. (who allowed her a pension of 4,000l. per annum) were very slender, so much so that, according to Lysons, it was usual for the nobility and others, who dined at her house, to leave money under the plates to pay for their entertainment. She appears to have been in arrear for the parish rates during the whole time of her residence at Chelsea.]

Halcyon Days.—What is the derivation of "halcyon days?"

W. P. E.

[The halcyon, or king's fisher, a bird said to breed in the sea, and that there is always a calm during her incubation; hence the adjective figuratively signifies placid, quiet, still, peaceful: as Dryden says,—

"The halcyon," says Willsford, in his Nature's Secrets, p. 134., "at the time of breeding, which is about fourteen days before the winter solstice, foreshews a quiet and tranquil time, as it is observed about the coast of Sicily, from whence the proverb is transported, the halcyon days."]