Replies.
Reading edition
MARMORTINTO, OR SAND-PAINTING.
(Vol. ix., p. 217.)
Mr. Haas, a native of Bibrach, in Germany, was accustomed to lay claim to the invention of sand-painting; and would often with a little pride repeat to his friends the way in which it was first suggested to his mind. Simply this:—Once, while he was engaged ornamenting a plateau with an elaborate and rich design, King George III. entered the apartment; and after having regarded the design and modum operandi for some considerable time in silence, exclaimed, in an impatient manner, as if vexed that so much beauty should be so short-lived: "Haas! Haas! you ought to fasten it." From that moment, the artist turned his ingenuity to the subject: and how successfully, his pictures show.
The remarks of F. C. H. as to the mode of painting are quite correct. The fixing of the sand was the last operation, inasmuch as I have heard of the artist's wrath visiting a poor pussy because she had shaken a picture, and thereby disturbed the sand not yet fixed. The secret died with him and a friend, a contemporaneous artist, to whom I believe he had communicated the secret; this friend's name I do not know. Mr. Haas painted landscapes, the friend painted cattle pieces. I have in my possession some of Mr. Haas' work. It is beautifully soft and quiet. The foliage is fine in the extreme, withal a rich depth of colouring. The Welsh scenery he felt most at home in, he threw into it a spirit of repose: while it was bold, there was nothing harsh or offensive to the eye. I have tried many experiments with one of this pictures: amongst other things, I find the least moisture will remove the sand. Mr. Haas had a gallery in London for some time (I believe in Regent Street), where there were portraits done in sand. A portrait of himself was considered the gem of the pictures: such a vitality and delicacy of colouring did it possess. I mention this merely to show that sand could be applied to other branches of art besides landscapes. The history of the pictures at Windsor Castle is to be seen in one of the old Windsor Guides. Mr. Hans died at Bibrach, where doubtless many of his pictures are.
Sand-paintings cannot last long; they have in themselves the element of their own destruction, "their rough surface," which very soon collects and retains the dust. I never heard of their being cleaned.
John Mummery.
Queenwood College, Stockbridge, Hants.
O'BRIEN OF THOSMOND.
(Vol. ix., p. 125.)
In corroboration of my former suggestion, that Nicholas Thosmound of Somersetshire was an O'Brien of Thomond, I beg to add some farther facts. Cotemporary with him was William Toutmound, who obtained in the sixth year of Henry IV. a grant of the office (in England) of chief carpenter of the king for his life. This singular office, "Capitalis Carpentarius Regis," must, I suppose, be called Lord High Carpenter of England, in analogy with the offices of steward, butler, &c. It is mentioned in the Calendar of Patent Rolls of England at the 6 Henry IV.; and in the same repository is mention of a grant long before by Henry III. of the land of Tosmond in Ireland, to A. R. Tosmond (R standing, I presume, for "Regi," for the Irish Toparchs were then thus designated by the English government). In this case then we have the letter s used for t, as in the Inq. P. M. of Alicia, wife of the before-mentioned Nicholas Thosmound. In the Abbreviatio Rotulorum Originalium of England, in 15 Edw. II., is the expression "Regalitatem de Totamon," applied to the district of Thomond in Ireland. It seems not unlikely that the two cotemporary individuals mentioned above were sons or grandsons of Turloch, or Tirrèlagh, O'Brien, sovereign of Thomond from 1367 to 1370, when he was supplanted by his nephew Brien O'Brien, ancestor of the Marquis of Thomond. For this Turloch was in some favour with the government, by whom his distress was sometimes relieved. Thus it appears from the printed calendar of Irish Chancery Rolls, that a writ of liberate issued in the 4th Rich. II. for the payment to him of forty marks; and again, 5 Rich. II., of twenty marks, "ei concord. p¯ recompens. labor." He was much befriended by the Earl of Desmond, whose successor being high in favour with the kings Henry V. and VI., obtained a large grant of land in the county of Waterford, which he immediately conferred on the sons of Turloch. Yet some of those sons may, through his interest, have been established in England. It becomes, therefore, a matter of considerable interest to ascertain whether the Inq. P. M. 2 Henry IV. contains any proof that Nicholas Thosmound was an O'Brien.
While on this subject, may I inquire the reason why the O'Briens quarter with their own arms the bearing of three piles meeting in a point? These latter were the arms of the English baronial family of Bryan, not at all connected with the Irish family. I suspect the Irish were late in their assumption of arms, and borrowed in many cases the arms of English families of nearly similar names.
A. B.
CORONATION STONE.
(Vol. ix., p. 123.)
Possibly the following authorities may tend to throw light upon the question started by your correspondent.
In Ant. Univ. Hist., vol. xvii. p. 287., 4to. ed., London, 1747, it is said:
"St. Austin tells us that some of the Carthaginian divinities had the name of Abaddires, and their priests that of Eucaddires. This class, in all probability, was derived from the stone which Jacob anointed with oil, after it had served him for a pillow the night he had his vision; for in the morning he called the place where he lay Bethel. Now it is no wonder this should have been esteemed as sacred, since God himself says, he was the God of Bethel, the place where Jacob anointed the pillar. From Bethel came the bætylus of Damascius, which we find called Abaddir by Priscian. This Abaddir is the Phœnician Aban-dir, that is, the spherical stone, exactly answering to the description of the bætylus given us by Damascius and others. The case seems to have been this; the Canaanites of the neighbourhood first worshipped the individual stone itself, upon which Jacob had poured oil; afterwards they consecrated others of that form, and worshipped them; which false worship was perpetuated even to the time of St. Austin."—See note (N), Ant. Univ. Hist., vol. i. p. 310.
Now if such stones were an object of worship among the Phœnicians, nothing is more probable than that they should take such a stone along with them in their migrations to new settlements; and it may therefore well be that the Phœnicians, who first settled in Ireland, did bring such a stone with them; and hence possibly the tradition in question may have originated.
There is abundant evidence that the Phœnicians fled from Palestine in very early times (Ant. Univ. Hist., vol. iii. p. 479.), and probably some of the Jews also about the time when Samaria was taken; and there can be no doubt that some Phœnicians, if not some Jews, settled in these islands at a very remote period; and it is a very remarkable fact that the Welsh spoken in North Wales is said to be nearer to the old Hebrew than any other existing language, and varying no more from it than the great length of time which has passed would lead any one to expect. (Ant. Univ. Hist., vol. vi. p. 31. note.)
S. G. C.
Thirty years ago, the coronation stone in Westminster Abbey stood under a very old chair; and was a bluish irregular block of stone, similar both in colour and shape to stepping-stones in the shallow rivers of the north of England. It is now a very nice hewn block, nicely fitted into the frame under the seat of a renovated chair. It does not look at all like the old stone of former days. Is the geological formation of the present block very difficult to ascertain?
H. R. Née F.
POLYGAMY.
(Vol. ix., p. 246.)
In answer to the various Queries of Stylites I have to observe:
1. That the Jews do not at present, in any country, practise polygamy, it being contrary, not to the letter, but to the spirit of the law of Moses, which nevertheless provides for cases where a man has two wives at the same time; the inconvenience of which practice is several times pointed out, and which was also inconsistent with the Levirate law. (See Jahn, § 151.; and the Mishna, סדר נשים, which designates more wives than one צרות, trouble, adversaries.)
2. The practice was, however, allowed expressly to the Jewish kings only, perhaps to the extent of four wives, which is the Rabbinic exposition, and coincides with the Koran.
3. Marriage being a civil contract in most heathen countries, as also amongst the Jews and early Christians, polygamy is not forbidden or allowed on religious grounds. Marriage was included under the general head of covenants, כתובות, in the Mishna. Barbarous nations generally practised polygamy, according to Tacitus (Germ. 18.); excepting the Germans, who, like the Greeks and Romans, "were content with a single wife," although some exceptions were found in this respect, non libidine, sed ob nobilitatem.
4. Polygamy was not practised amongst the early Christians, who followed the Jews in this matter.
5. Clement of Alexandria (Stromata, lib. iii. p. 461., edit. 1629) says:
"Ἀλλ' ὁ αὐτὸς ἀνὴρ καὶ Κύριος, παλαιὰ καινίζων, οὐ πολυγαμίαν ἔτι συγχωρεὶ· τότε γὰρ ἀπήτει ὁ Θὲος, ὅτε αὐξάνεσθαι καὶ πληθύνειν ἐχρῆν· μονογαμίαν δὲ εἰσάγει, διὰ παιδοποιίαν, καὶ τὴν τοῦ οἴκου κηδεμονίαν, εἰς ἢν βοηθὸς ἐδόθη ἡ γυνή."
Whence it appears that to have progeny and a helpmate at home were the objects proposed in matrimony, for which polygamy was unfavorable. He then remarks on the privilege conceded to some to form a second marriage, after the death of the first wife, which St. Paul forbids to a bishop, who was to be, in the modern sense of the word, a monogamist. Two wives at the same time were wholly repugnant to Jewish, as well as Greek and Roman, sentiment. Ignatius (ad Polyc. 5.) says it is proper (πρέπει) for married persons to unite under the bishop's advice, so that the marriage may be κατὰ Θεὸν and not κατ' ἐπιθυμίαν; whence it is inferred that a marriage was valid in his time, although no religious sanction was obtained.
T. J. Buckton.
Lichfield.
Stylites says, "On what ground has polygamy become forbidden among Christians? I am not aware that it is directly forbidden by Scripture." In reply to this I venture to say, that the Divine will on this matter was sufficiently indicated at the creation, when one woman was appointed for one man, as expressed in Gen. ii. 24., and quoted by Our Lord, with the significant addition of the word twain: "They twain shall be one flesh" (Matt. xix. 5.). Twain, i.e. two; not twenty, nor any indefinite number. Moreover, the law of nature speaks, in the nearly equal numbers of men and women that are born, or, as in this parish, by making the men the more numerous.
But Stylites starts a most interesting question in a practical point of view. It is admitted that the Gospel is not very explicit respecting polygamy; and why so? Possibly the Gospel was purposely kept silent; and the Church allowed some latitude in judgment upon a very difficult point, because it was foreseen that the custom of polygamy would prove one of the greatest obstacles to a reception of pure Christianity. This difficulty is of constant occurrence in heathen lands at the present day. The Christian missionary insists upon the convert abandoning all his wives, except the one whom he first married. This woman was probably childless; and because she was so, he formed other and legal connexions. But before he can be received as a Christian, he must dissolve all these later ties, and bastardise children who were innocently born in lawful wedlock. The conditions are very awful. An act of cruelty and injustice has to be performed by one who is on the point of entering the threshold of Christianity!
Perhaps these considerations may serve to account for the comparative silence of the Gospel upon a subject which seemed to require the expression of a direct command, whilst they will in no way obscure its universally-admitted meaning.
Alfred Gatty.
Ecclesfield.
POETICAL TAVERN SIGNS.
(Vol. ix., p. 58.)
The subjoined lines address themselves to the traveller, as he looks on the sign of "The Rodney's Pillar" inn at Criggirn, a hamlet on the borders of Montgomeryshire and this county:
"Under these trees, in sunny weather, Just try a cup of ale, however; And if in tempest or in storm, A couple then to make you warm; But when the day is very cold, Then taste a mug a twelvemonth old." Reverse side. "Rest, and regale yourself: 'tis pleasant. Enough is all the prudent need. That's the due of the hardy peasant, Who toils all sorts of men to feed. "Then 'muzzle not the ox when he treads out corn,' Nor grudge honest labour its pipe and its horn."
G. H. Billington.
The following, although not a tavern sign, may be worth preserving. I saw it under a painting of an ox, which adorned a butcher's shop at Ischl, in Upper Austria, A.D. 1835:
"Der Ochs besteht aus Fleisch und Bein zum laufen, Darum kann ich das Fleisch nicht ohne Bein verkaufen."
J. C. R.
In the parlour of the "Three Pigeons," Brentford, is an old painting, dated 1704, representing a landlord attending to his guests seated at a table in the open air, with these lines above:
"Wee are new beginners, And thrive wee would faine; I am Honest Ralf of Reading, My wife Susand to name."
Wright, in his Historia Histronica, 1699, tells us that—
"Lowin (one of the original actors in Shakspeare's plays), in his latter days, kept an inn, the 'Three Pigeons,' at Brentford, where he died very old."
At the "Old Parr's Head," Aldersgate Street, was, in 1825, a sign of an ancient gentleman, with these lines under:
"Your head cool, Your feet warm; But a glass of good gin Would do you no harm."
The author of Tavern Anecdotes, 12mo., 1825, records the following:
"Rhyming Host at Stratford. At the Swan Tavern, kept by Lound, The best accommodation's found— Wine, spirits, porter, bottled beer, You'll find in high perfection here. If, in the garden with your lass, You feel inclin'd to take a glass, There tea and coffee, of the best, Provided is for every guest; And, females not to drive from hence, His charge is only fifteen pence. Or, if dispos'd a pipe to smoke, To sing a song, or crack a joke, You may repair across the green, Where nought is heard, tho' much is seen: There laugh, and drink, and smoke away, And but a mod'rate reck'ning pay,— Which is a most important object, To every loyal British subject. In short, The best accommodation's found, By those who deign to visit Lound."
Edward F. Rimbault.
1. At a public-house near Cambridge, known to the natives of Cambridgeshire as "Tew-Pot House," formerly kept by one Cooper, there used to be, I cannot say decidedly is, as I have not passed the place for ten years and more, the following:
"Rest, traveller, rest; lo! Cooper's hand Obedient brings two pots at thy command. Rest, traveller, rest, and banish thoughts of care. Drink to thy friends, and recommend them here."
2. The Robin Hood inscription is found, with a very little variation, in front of a public-house at Cherryhinton, at the corner of the road to Fulbourn, in this county.
3. Who can forget the suggestion by Walter Scott, of
"Drink, weary traveller, drink and pay,"
as a motto for the public-house at Flodden? (See Lockhart's Life of Scott, cap. xxv.)
I remember seeing the following in the parlour of a house at Rancton, I believe in Norfolk:
"More beer score clerk
For my my his
Do trust pay sent
I I must have
Shall if I brewer
What and and my."[6]
P. J. F. Gantillon.
In Deansgate, Manchester, under an artistic representation of Llangollen Castle, is the following:
"Near the above place, in a vault, There is such liquor fixed, You'll say that water, hops, and malt Were never better mixed."
As a parallel to the case cited by Newburiensis, I may mention the sign of the "Brown Cow," near the village of Glodwick, Oldham:
"This cow gives such liquor, 'Twould puzzle a viccar" [sic].
John Scribe.
The following verse from the sign-board of the Bull Inn at Buckland near Dover, may not be an uninteresting addition to your list of poetical tavern signs.
"The bull is tame, so fear him not, All the while you pay your shot; When money's gone, and credit's bad, It's that which makes the bull run mad!"
Fras. Brent.
Sandgate.
At the Red Lion, Stretton, near Warmington:
"The Lion is strong, the Cat is vicous[sic], My ale is good, and so is my liquors."
E. P. Paling.
February 20, 1854.
At Swainsthorpe, a village five miles from Norwich, on the road to Ipswich, is a public-house known as the "Dun Cow." Under the portrait of the cow, in former days, stood the following couplet:
"Walk in, gentlemen; I trust you'll find The dun cow's milk is to your mind."
Whether it still remains I know not, as many years have gone by since I passed that way.
T. B. B. H.
"BEHEMOTH."
(Vol. ix., p. 77.)
Hobbes's Behemoth forms the eighth tract in the collection relating to the civil wars by the Baron Maseres (1815), and occupies nearly 200 pages. The Baron, in his Preface (pp. lxxviii., lxxix.) gives the following character of the work:
"It is written in a very clear and lively style, and contains a great deal of curious historical matter concerning the rise and gradual increase of the Pope's power over temporal princes: the prohibition of marriage in secular priests; the doctrine of transubstantiation; the institution of auricular confession to a priest; the institution of Orders of preaching friars; and the institution of Universities and Schools of Disputation; (all which institutions, he observes, had a tendency to increase the power of the Pope, and were made for that purpose,) which is set forth in pp. 467, 468., &c., to p. 472. And much other interesting matter, concerning the sentiments of the Presbyterian ministers, the Papists, the Independents, and other sectaries. The pretensions made by them to Spiritual Power, and the nature of heresies and the history of them, is clearly and justly described in another part of it; over and above the narration of the several events of the civil war itself, which I believe to be faithful and exact in point of fact, though with a different judgment of Mr. Hobbes as to the moral merit of the persons concerned in producing them, from that which, I presume, will be formed by many of the readers of this history at this day; which difference of judgment between Mr. Hobbes and the present readers of this work, will be a necessary consequence, from Mr. Hobbes's having entertained two very important opinions concerning the nature of civil government in general, and of the monarchical government of England in particular, which in the present age are thought, by almost every Englishman who has paid any attention to the subject, to be exceedingly erroneous."
Subjoined to his reprint of this tract, the Baron has appended remarks on some particular passages therein, which appeared to him to contain erroneous opinions.
C. H. Cooper.
Cambridge.
PHOTOGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE.
Photographic Slides for the Magic Lantern.—Might not the collodion process be applied very usefully in the preparation of slides for the magic lantern?
Good slides are always expensive, owing, in great measure, to the accuracy required, where every defect will be magnified some hundred times.
I would suggest that a photographic picture should be taken on the glass plate, and then varnished. The painter should then apply his colours to the opposite side of the glass, using the photographic image as his outline. The colours would then be burnt in, and the varnish and collodion film cleared off.
This plan would be especially useful when the photographic picture had been taken by the microscope.
Thos. Scott, B.A.
Brighton.
Albumenized Paper.—If Mr. Hele will follow the directions contained in a paper of mine which you published in Vol. ix., p. 206., for albumenizing paper, I think he will have no reason to complain of waves, or streaks, or blotches, and will be saved the trouble of the damping process which he uses and recommends to others. ("N. & Q.," Vol. ix., p. 254.) I have done a considerable quantity of paper of Canson, both positive and negative, and also of other makers, Whatman, Turner, Sandford, and Nash, and in all I have succeeded perfectly in obtaining an even coating of albumen. I am convinced from my own experience that the cause of waviness, &c., is due to raising the paper from the albumen too slowly. If the paper be snatched hastily from the solution, air bubbles no doubt will be formed; but if the paper be raised with a steady even motion, not too slow, the albumen will flow evenly from the paper, and it will dry with a perfectly even surface.
Mr. Shadbolt is certainly mistaken in saying that positives printed from negatives will not stand a saturated solution of hypo. soda, unless they be printed so intensely dark that all traces of a picture by reflected light are obliterated. I have used nothing but a saturated solution for fixing my positives for a considerable time, and my experience agrees with that of other of your correspondents, that the picture is not as much reduced by a saturated solution as by a weaker one. By adding about one grain of sel d'or to every eight ounces of saturated solution, very rich black tones will be obtained.
I inclose a specimen of what I have got in this way.
C. E. F.
[The specimen sent is most satisfactory; we wish that the locality of the view had been stated.—Ed.]
Mounting Positives on Cardboard.—In the absence of any other reply to J. L. S. (Vol. ix., p. 282.), the following, as the method I always adopt, may serve his purpose.
Having cut the positive to the size required, and trimmed the edges, place it upon the cardboard to which it is intended to be attached, and carefully centre it; then with a pencil make a slight dot at each of the angles. Remove the proof, and lay it face downwards upon a piece of clean paper or a cloth, and with any convenient brush smear it evenly over with a paste made of arrowroot, taking care not to have more than just enough to cover it without leaving any patches. Place it gently on the cardboard, holding it for the purpose by two opposite angles, and with a silk handkerchief dab it gently, beginning in the middle, and work any little superfluity of the paste towards the edges, when it will be gradually pressed out. The whole may be placed in a press, or under a pile of books to dry.
My object in using arrowroot is simply that of having a pure starch without colour, and it serves as a size to the paper, which has lost that originally in it by the repeated washings, &c.
The paste is made very thin, thus:—Put a teaspoonful of arrowroot (not heaped) into a teacup with about two spoonfuls of cold water, and mix into a paste: then add boiling water enough to fill the cup, and stir. Many photographers merely attach the edges of their pictures, but I prefer them to adhere all over. Gum is fatal to the beauty of a photograph, unless it is previously re-sized.
Geo. Shadbolt.
Mr. Lyte's Collodion (Vol. ix., p. 225.).—Our readers may remember that in "N. & Q.," Feb. 18, Mr. F. Maxwell Lyte furnished our readers with a detailed plan of his mode of preparing collodion. In that article, written from Pau, that gentleman was so good as to promise us that when he had an opportunity he would send us a couple of specimens of his workmanship. He has more than fulfilled his promise, for we have received from him this week four photographs, which, for general beauty and minuteness of detail, cannot be surpassed. The subjects are, I. Study of Trees, No. 2.; II. Study of Trees, No. 5. Old Pollard Oak; III. Study of Trees, Peasants collecting Leaves; IV. Old Church Porch, Morlâas, Monogram of the Eleventh Century. Mr. Lyte, who is a first-rate chemist, has shown himself by these specimens to be also a first-rate practical photographer. From him, therefore, the art may look for much future progress.